ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “I also express my full solidarity and the government in Ranucci and his family and reaffirm the firm condemnation for the vigil and criminal act that has suffered and which represents an attack not only to the person, but to the freedom of press and the fundamental values of our democracy: the work of the police forces continues with intensity to quickly assure justice those responsible for the attack.” The Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said this during an urgent information to the Chamber on the attack on Sigfrido Ranucci.
“The competent joints of my ministry have long been engaged in the protection and protection services of Ranucci, precisely for the risk exposure deriving from his activity as an investigative journalist – adds Piantedosi –. Since 2020 he has made some reports on intimidating acts, mostly in missives and web messages. I was myself, as a prefect of Rome, to inform him about the need to assign him a personal protection, modulated from August 2021 in a fourth-level tutory device: also recently, following the intimidation act of 16 October, I have given a mandate to maximise all protection measures. The safety level has been raised, renouncing the tutory device from the fourth to the third level; In addition, a radio-connected generic surveillance device has been activated in the areas usually frequented by the journalist; similar attention has been paid to the safety measures already adopted by the public security committee Rai on the occasion of the entrances and exits of Ranucci from the company. Even before the attack, the measures against him have always been promptly adapted to the information reports and findings that emerged away.”.
“The phenomenon of intimidating acts against journalists is constantly followed by my ministry, also through the coordination centre for monitoring, analysis and permanent exchange of information that I myself preside over and which will be reconvoked in early November – said the minister -: we have also established a support body as a privileged place of comparison between information referents and Viminale experts, in order to identify at an operational level the most suitable interventions of prevention and prevention”.
“To better picture the phenomenon of intimidating acts, I think it is useful to provide some elements on national dynamics taking into consideration two types of data, quantitative and qualitative – continues Piantedosi, – The quinquennio 2020-2024 recorded 718 episodes, with an average of about 143 events per year and a peak in 2021 with 232: in the first six months of 2025 81 warnings were recorded; the largest number of episodes occurred when this government was not in office. By examining the types of threats, it is possible to distinguish the main matrices between organized crime, those of sociopolitical nature and a third generic that incorporates all remaining cases: in the five-year period the major occurrences have occurred for sociopolitical reasons due to events of square, public or sporting events or similar scenarios; Also in this case the most episodes occurred in 2021, with 113. The main threats come from the web and social platforms: in the first half of 2025 are 31 out of 81 total. Worthy of note is the data on threats through physical aggression, which however shows a tendency to reduction: Further miners are verbal threats and corruption of property owned by journalists, who sum up amount to 20% of the total.”
“The attention of this government to the security of journalists is maximum. Those who use this serious intimidating act to shadow a responsibility of the executive offend the truth and institutions with little sense of the state: the same Ranucci has made extremely balanced statements, far from any reconstruction behindlogic – still says the owner of the Viminale -. Freedom of press is of vital importance for democracy and its defence requires, in addition to concrete actions such as those put into being by police forces and judicial authorities, also the assiduous commitment of institutions and civil society: In this sense, I hope that the theme of the protection of freedom of press would not expire as a tool of gross partisan propaganda.”.
– Photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
