Support Our Work Mailing list About / Contact
  • Home /
  • News /
  • 2004 /
  • October /
  • Italy: Journalist sentenced for smuggling himself into reception centre

Italy: Journalist sentenced for smuggling himself into reception centre

01 October 2004

Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

On 22 October 2004, a journalist was handed a 15-day prison sentence (converted into a 570-Euro fine) by a court in Agrigento (Sicily) for having smuggled himself into an immigrant reception centre in Italy, on the island of Lampedusa. On 23 June 2003, Francesco Viviano gave false personal details to the police and pretended to be an Afghan to be able to enter the centre. The Sicilian section of the Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani (UNCI, National Union of Italian Reporters) issued a statement in support of the journalist, which stated that "It is true that our colleague Francesco Viviano entered the establishment by providing false personal details, but he did so to produce a journalistic report concerning the forms and conditions of reception for migrants, under which, once it was published, his real personal details appeared". UNCI expressed its solidarity for the journalist, deeming that "the sentence against Viviano is the result of the bureaucratic application of a norm from the criminal code, and we are sure that Sicilian reporters will continue to seek the truth where it is most hidden [from view], and in the ways that they consider to be most suitable".

Viviano's report was published in the Italian daily La Repubblica on 24 June 2003, and describes the preliminary procedures adopted at the time of admission into the centre, which included being made to strip naked in front of carabinieri (paramilitary police officers) and being made fun of and insulted by officers assuming that the migrants don't understand what they are saying. He was soon discovered, when the carabinieri found his mobile phone.

This is not the first time that journalists or organisations attempting to produce reports about conditions within reception and detention centres in Italy suffer consequences for doing this. The Corriere della Sera journalist Fabrizio Gatti was found guilty in May 2004 (see below), for having smuggled himself into the via Corelli detention centre in Milan by giving police false personal details, and the Italian branch of the international humanitarian doctors' organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been the object of a war of words with the government and a break-down in its cooperation with Italian authorities to provide medical assistance to migrants after it published a damning report about conditions in Italy's detention centres in January 2004 (see below).

Repubblica, 22.10.2004; 24.6.2003

filed 22.10.04.

Previous coverage:

Statewatch news online, June 2004: Italy: Update: MSF accused of 'disloyalty' over CPT report
Statewatch news online, May 2004: Italy: Journalist who revealed abuses against migrants sentenced

Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

 Previous article

EU: European Call: Against the creation of camps at European borders (link)

Next article 

EU: "The Hague Programme" on justice and home affairs

 

Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.

Report error

Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.

About | Contact | Privacy Policy