Several human rights
organizations are assessing possible legal action against two
Italian newspapers that ran front-page headlines on Wednesday
accusing migrants of bringing disease to Italy.
Social networks are awash in criticism of Libero and Il
Tempo, right-wing and conservative newspapers that used their
front pages to accuse migrants of the recent death of a young
girl in the Trento hospital in northern Italy from malaria.
Four-year-old Sofia Zago apparently died of the same strain
of malaria from which a Burkina Faso family recovered after a
return visit to their home country.
Libero's front-page headline translates as "After Poverty,
Now They Are Bringing Disease" and another article within it was
entitled "Immigrants Suffering from Deadly Diseases Spread
Infection...".
The Il Tempo headline translates as "Here is the Migrant's
Disease".
The Articolo 21, A Mano Disarmata, Progetto Diritto, Rete
Nobavaglio and the Italian branch of Amnesty International have
asked their legal teams to look into possibly reporting the
publications to the judiciary for violation of a 1993 law that
prohibits gestures, actions and slogans linked to neo-Fascism
that intend to incite violence and discrimination on the basis
of race, ethnicity, religion or nationality, as well as Article
658 of the Criminal Code on spreading alarm among the public.
The abovementioned "headlines and summaries take their cue
from a hypothesis that has not been proven in any way," the
associations noted, "and cannot be considered 'opinions', since
they report events that never happened as if they were fact. As
citizens even before professionals in the field of information,
we are for freedom of expression as protected by Article 21 of
our constitution."
"However, we are also compliance with the law," they added,
"and above all we are for the free information that protects the
main asset of democracy: the truth. We ask all citizens,
associations and political parties to join us in this fight for
civilization."
Much lively discussion has been seen on Facebook on the
issue, with many disputing the theory of how the disease was
transmitted.
"I am against censorship and denunciations. My freedom is
theirs," TgLa7 director Enrico Mentana said. "But this morning's
headlines in Libero and Il Tempo are very far from the truth and
incite readers to ugly thoughts".
Rightwing populist Northern league (LN) leader Matteo Salvini
on Wednesday defended Il Tempo and Libero from linking migrants
with Zago's death, saying "I haven't read Libero, but in general
it's undeniable that a certain type of disease is linked to the
migratory phenomenon."
He said "it's clear that the health system of central Africa
is less efficient than ours" and added "I don't know if they
(migrants) bring poverty, but they certainly bring social
problems".
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