Interior MInister Luciana Lamorgese
said Wednesday the government will beef up measures to protect
people against Web-based hate after a spate of attacks by
anti-vaxxers against doctors, journalists and politicians
including Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.
She said particular attention would be paid to intimidatory
threats against journalists and others.
Meanwhile postal police started examining illegal activities of
anti-vaxxers on the Telegram portal.
Italian anti-vaxxers posted death threats against 5-Star
Movement (M5S) bigwig Di Maio in Telegram chat rooms on Tuesday.
"Another rat to be executed", "we need lead", and "you must
die", were some of the messages.
Di Maio is among those who have become the target of anti-vax
hate after statements in favour of Italy's vaccine rollout.
He said this week "the whole political spectrum, and more, must
condemn the violence we are seeing on the part of the so-called
No Vax, who are protesting in unacceptable forms. "I appeal to
all political forces too: you must not fan the flames".
Rightwing leaders like the League's Matteo Salvini have said
that while they condemn violence, they understand the
anti-vaxxers' anger and no one should be forced to get the COVID
jab.
There have been a number of violent protests and other incidents
involving anti-vaxxers in Italy recently.
On Sunday night a top virologist, Matteo Bassetti, was accosted
by a 46-year-old man who has been cited for issuing serious
threats. The man reportedly came across Bassetti in the street
and started following him, filming him on his phone and shouting
at him: "You're going to kill all of us with these vaccines and
we're going to make you pay".
Bassetti, an expert in infectious diseases at Genoa's San
Martino Hospital, appears regularly on Italian TV and urges
people to get the COVID jab. Police said Tuesday that eight
people had been cited for social-media threats against Bassetti
over the last few months. Prosecutors said they may pursue the
charge of stalking against the anti-vaxxers, a charge that could
enable them to serve restraining orders on offenders or even put
them under house arrest.
Meanwhile in Rome Monday, a video journalist from La Repubblica
daily was attacked by a protester at an anti-Green Pass sit-in
outside the Education Ministry.
And a pro-Green Pass teacher received a bullet in the mail.
There have been several protests against the vaccine passport,
which on Wednesday became obligatory for domestic air and
long-distance rail travel, as well as schools.
Bassetti told ANSA: "I ask for the State's protection vis a vis
people who threaten, I should like the State to punish these
people. "I don't want escorts, I want the State to punish people
who threaten. "I've been threatened since December, since the
vaccine came out: first anonymous letters, then threats by phone
in the clinic and at my wife's hotel, it's been continuous".
The interior ministry said the right to protest was guaranteed
in Italy, but not that to make threats.
Italy's privacy watchdog said anti-vaxxers had been posting
private details such as the addresses and phone numbers of
doctors, journalists, politicians and representatives of
institutions in chat rooms and this activity was illegal.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said "solidarity to the many
struck by threats or violent attacks. From Minister Di Maio to
professor Bassetti, to the journalists, there are now too many
suffering invective and attacks by fringes of violent
protesters. They are stepping over the limit. Violence can never
be tolerated".
Interior Undersecretary Carlo Sibilia said anyone blocking rail
circulation Wednesday would be committing a crime and "we will
have to be intransigent on this".
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