You can hear an interview with de Magistris on the Radio Radicale site
Interview with Luigi de Magistris
October 8th, 2007 by listerboDe Magistris hearing put off until December
October 8th, 2007 by listerboNot unsurprisingly, the disciplinary hearing of public prosecutors De Magistris e Lombardi has been put off until the 17th December. Ansa and Reuters report that the postponement is due to the fact that last Friday Minister of Justice Mastella made further complaints about de Magistris, which the commission needs time to examine. Among the fresh accusations was de Magistris’ “relaxed relationship with the press” and his “complete lack of regard for discretion while conducting investigations”, especially as far as the position of Romano Prodi in the “Why Not” investigation is concerned. Both the Prosecutor General and the defence have asked for the change of date. “I am very determined and very serene. I will make further comments only after the 17th December”, said de Magistris as he left the CSM offfices,
After the Annozero program last Thursday Mastella complained about being “lynched” by the media and threatened to ask that the Senate to pass a motion of no confidence in the State TV Board of Directors. At the moment he is living it up in the US as Guest-of-Honour at the Columbus Day celebrations (crucially important to world peace). Mastella heads a so-called “contingent of dignitaries” (sic) - Italian politicians taking part in the celebration. How much this freebie is costing the Italian taxpayer no one says
These are the same politicians who think they have the right to dictate to public television authorities what they can and cannot broadcast; if information aired on TV is not to their lordships’ liking, the journalists must be hauled over the coals and/or the program censored; if a public prosecutor digs up any unwholesome titbits about the ruling caste, she or he must be silenced. This is Italy in a nutshell.
Support de Magistris
October 5th, 2007 by listerbo
Mastella strikes again
October 5th, 2007 by listerboControversial Rai2 TV program Annozero hosted by controversial anchorman Michele Santoro (removed from the RAI after Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous “Bulgarian diktat”) this week zoomed into the “case” of public prosecutor Luigi di Magistris, currently in the public eye for having uncovered a few rather smelly manholes in the world of Mafi&Co, including cases of corruption involving judges in Lucania.
Among those supporting him on the talk show were hundreds of enraged students and citizens from a number of associations, PM Clementina Forleo, herself pilloried by politicians and the media for having dared to request Parliament for permission to use phone taps involving MPs in investigating serious financial scandals (the present law politicians completely protects MP’s “private” phonecalls even if they involve illicit or illegal activity). Francesco Cossiga, a monument to democracy, apparently tried to prevent her appearance on TV.
Murdered judge Paolo Borsellino’s brother was also present in the studio as well as the daughter of Antonino Scopelliti, a judge murdered by the Calabrian mafia, ‘Ndrangheta.
De Magistris himself was not present in the TV studio, as some newspaper articles today would seem to imply, but an interview with him this summer was broadcast, during which he correctly refused to speak about ongoing investigations. Nor would he go into any detail about inspections by Mastella’s ministerial bloodhounds. He did however state that the bitterest moment of his career was when the investigation Poseidon, which he had been working on tirelessly for years, was taken away from him by his own superior, whose stepson was involved in the criminal investigation.
Minister of “Grace” and so-called Justice C. Mastella now wants de Magistris moved somewhere where he can do less harm to the ruling caste. He has sent cartloads of inspectors down to Catanzaro, where de Magistris works; the forcible transfer depends on decision of the CSM on Monday 8th October. Mastella has denied that this has anything to do with an investigation entitled “Why not” in which Mastella’s own name allegedly appears (as does that of Prime Minister Romano Prodi).
Last night, the Annozero studio was full of young people who support de Magistris’ work against the ‘Ndrangheta.
Politician and former magistrate Antonio di Pietro’s website offers further support for de Magistris. ”To ask for him to be transferred” writes di Pietro, ”means not having understood anything about what is happening in the country. The general public feels that this request is an umpteenth act of abusing power by the political class” (…)
Only in a place like Italy (or Burma) can you demand that a programme like this not to be broadcast, concludes di Pietro. Referring to Prodi’s negative remarks on the programme, today he comments that ‘it is a serious mistake to try and prevent the airing of information just because you don’t like it (,,,) Berlsuconi has already tried to gag journalism. We shouldn’ follow his example.
Beppe Grillo’s blog also continues to support de Magistris, as does Marco Travaglio who, writing in the Unità (5 Sept), describes de Magistris as a “rare and dangerous exemplar of an investigator who investigates”.
Minsiter Rosy Bindi is reported to have said”I have never liked televised trials and I don’t like things to be dicussed in the wrong venues”
She has evidently mistaken a progam of investigative journalism (which reports facts and opinions from schoolchildren, murder victims’ relatives, politicians and judges, with “Judge Judy”. In which other country in Europe can a Minister claim that a program of political and legal information has no right to be reporting political and legal information!
The moral of the de Magistris story seems to be that anyone investigating the connections between Mafia and politics end will be forced to come to a dead end.
Mastella and the Moles
July 19th, 2007 by listerboOne of Justice Minister Clemente (“Clemency”) Mastella’s most pressing concerns since he got into power has been to get his hands on illegal and legal wiretappers and prevent the wording of transcribed conversatons getting into into the press. As early as the 27th June last year he was asking for…. “adequate fines for newspapers who illegally publish documents which are under “investigative secrecy”. The Bill has already been approved by the Camera dei Deputati. If the law passes in the Senate, journalists will have to pay heavier fines for publishing documents which are “secret” or information which has been gained by illegal means and shouldn’t be published. Marco Travaglio, one of the most outspoken critics of the new Bill, has declared that he would rather go to prison than submit to this type of censorship.
Antonio di Pietro, ex “Clean Hands” prosecutor, is also understandably enraged by the Bill, which would effectively make it illegal for newspaper to provide their readers with inside information about dirty dealings of politicians and bankers. He will vote against the government.
Both opposition and government are behind the new law, not surprisingly, because sleazy dealings involve left, right and centre. With few exceptions, MP’s, across the board always challenge the application of the law when their own personal interests are threatened.
The “Gagging” Bill is now back in the Law Commision of the Senate where it is being revised, especially in the part concerning the publication of information on wiretapping and criminal investigation.
A delegation from the National Union of Journalists recently presented technical and legal documentation to representatives of the Law Commission, as well as proposed modifications to the Bill and over a thousand signatures of journalists from all over Italy. They requested that all possible steps be taken to avoid placing a stranglehold on investigative journalism. The meeting seems to have gone well, and Senator Casson apparently shared the journalists’ concerns about the kind of censorship being built into the new law. He said that he hoped that a better balance could be achieved between the individual’s right to privacy and the right of the public to free access to information.
We will wait and see.
For more info>>
Information and Mafia at the University of Bologna
May 16th, 2007 by listerboRoberto Morrione worked for the RAI, the Italian state television, for over forty years, most recently as director of RaiNews 24 (from 1999 to 2006). He was in Palermo as a young reported when the mafia bombs first created their carnage in the 70′s; he learnt his professions from reporters of the calibre of Enzo Biagi and Mauro de Mauro (assassinated by the Mafia). He was the journalist who put part of Paolo Borsellino’s final interview on the air, in which the judge spoke of the connections between Forza Italia creator Marcello dell’Utri, the Mafia and drug-dealing. No prime time channel would broadcast that interview.
Morrione was publicly accused by right-wing politian Paolo Guzzanti of having manipulated the video and he has just won a libel against this Forza Italia politician.In this lesson Morrione describes the ups and downs of relationships between mafia, politics and journalism over the past decades.DOWNLOAD MP3 >>
Fresh attacks on farming cooperative
May 15th, 2007 by listerboThe vineyard of a cooperative in Monreale which cultivates vines on land confiscated from the Mafia has been damaged. The attack took place in Pietralunga, on land which was cnfiscated from Giovanni Simonetti (turned state’s witness) and administered by the cooperative “Lavoro e Non”, which belongs to the association Liberaterra. About 70% of the young vine shoots have been damaged, seriously affecting next year’s harvest.
Police are investigating.
Don Luigi Ciotti, president of Libera, says “There is a counteroffensive by the Mafia organisations going on. They are clearly worried about the results being achieved in the field of citizenship education. We will not be intimidated and we are certain that citizens
and institutions alike will respond to this attack with their usual solidarity. We want to tell the young people who are having to fight a daily battle against the Mafia in workcamps on confiscated land to carry on with the same courage they have shown so far, and to be aware that all Italians who believe in the values of democracy are on the side of freedom and legality”.
(…)
Syracuse University against the Mafia
May 14th, 2007 by listerbo
Syracuse University is supporting the anti-mafi project “Liberarci dalle spine” (Free us from the thorns n.d.t.) organised by the Region of Tuscany, Libera nad the regional Arci organisation. You can see a video of the press conference presenting the project in the Florentine headquarters of the University
Mafia and Antimafia in Civil Society
May 9th, 2007 by listerboI have posted the audio file of Giacomo Zappia’s talk on the 27th April 2007 entitled Riutilizzo dei beni confiscati. L'esperienze delle cooperative agricole (The re-use of confiscated land. The experience of the farming cooperatives)
This lesson was the 7th in a series entitled “Mafia and Antimafia in Civil Society” a seminar organised by Prof.ssa Stefani Pellegrini at the University of Bologna Law Faculty.
In Memory of Peppino and Felicia
May 9th, 2007 by listerboPeppino Impastato was murdered by the Mafia 29 years ago
Most Italians remember the 9th May 1978 as the day when the body of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro, barbarically murdered by the Red Brigade, was discovered. But for most Sicilians it is a day to remember people who lost their lives fighting against Cosa Nostra. That night in Cinisi, near Palermo, Peppino Impastato was beaten to death and his body dynamited on the railway line.
The murder was commissioned directly by the boss of Cinisi Tano Badalamenti, to punish someone who had spoken out against the Mafia from the microphones of Radio Aut.
Over the years a movement had been developing thanks to which Cinisi had become the symbol of young people’s rebellion against Mafia conservatism and oppression. Activism, sit-ins, demonstrations, investigations and public meetings in the town squares and on the radio have brought back to life again over the past few days thanks to the intiatives organised by the Forum Sociale
Antimafia “Felicia e Peppino Impastato“ from the 6th to the 9th May to commemorate the 29th anniversary of Peppino’s murder.
(cont….)
Fabrizio Maggiore