Italy: CFWIJ Condemns Police Attack On Journalist Flavia Amabile During Anti-Vax Protests
Location: Italy
Date: October 14, 2021
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) condemns police’s attack on Italian journalist Flavia Amabile while she was covering a protest in Rome against Covid-19 vaccinations and mandatory health pass.
Flavia Amabile, a journalist with daily newspaper La Stampa, was reported to have been hit with police batons while working in the field on October 9, 2021 in the Italian capital, Rome. She was on site to cover the anti-vaccine protest when she was assaulted by the police officers present there.
In a video shared by Amabile on social media, she can be seen with a photojournalist who loudly identifies himself as a member of the press. Despite this, the police continued to baton charge the two journalists. The police reportedly resorted to using tear gas and water canons at the protestors as well.
“You can clearly hear the photographer scream 'I'm a journalist', “ Flavia Amabile wrote on Twitter.
Another video of the same protest also showed the journalist being attacked by the police. “It was a moment of calm, no one was throwing objects,” Amabile wrote on Twitter describing the moment before she was hit.
She took to Twitter to emphasize the need for a free press and the right to information. “I defend the freedom to inform because if there is the freedom to inform, those who have suffered injustices are defended.”
Due precisazioni dopo tanti commenti:
— flavia amabile (@flaviaamabile) October 11, 2021
1 - difendo la libertà di informare perché se esiste la libertà di informare si difende chi ha subito delle ingiustizie
“There was an evident disparity between the police forces and the demonstrators. The agents felt besieged and were afraid not to be able to protect the Government Palace. They started to beat journalists and protesters even if there was no attack at all,” Flavia told the CFWIJ.
Flavia highlighted the obscure situation in Italy for women journalists. "In 2019, women were the 41% of the Italian journalists and they earned 18% less than men, and 26% less during retirement. In an anonymous survey, 85% of the Italian women journalists admitted to have endured harassment."
The Coalition For Women In Journalism registers the police’s actions as a direct attack on the freedom of the press, on free speech and the right to information. Such attacks on journalists are unacceptable. Journalists take great risks covering such events, especially during a pandemic, and then, for them to face police brutality is intolerable. The CFWIJ extends solidarity to Flavia and the photojournalist, who was also beaten by the police. We demand that the errant police officers are held to account immediately. Barring the press from covering a protest against government policy, with thousands in attendance, is a direct encroachment on press freedom and right to information. It does not escape us that the police’s actions were also in violation of the right to protest. Italy must take action to curb such practices by state institutions in order to preserve democratic principles in the country.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
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