Staying alive: Reporter Sandro Ruotolo reveals how local news reporters in southern Italy are threatened by the Mafia

Local journalism is much needed in Italy but, as Laura Silvia Battaglia reports, just doing your job can be dangerous

SANDRO RUOTOLO IS a veteran investigative reporter famous for the many years he spent investigating the Mafia and Camorra in southern Italy, initially for local news organisations and then on national television.

He says financial survival is not just an issue for local news publications – it goes hand in hand with concerns for their staff.

Now working in Naples for Fanpage, a webbased TV channel with nine million followers, he says local newspapers that have succeeded in making the “life-saving transition to digital” must innovate and adapt while also avoiding a problem which although present at national level, is felt more keenly locally: the conflict of interest between editorial leadership and financial ownership.

He told Index: “When journalists, especially local ones, probe such conflation of interests because they believe in independent journalism, they put themselves at risk - physically at risk.

“The fact that there are still 21 journalists, 20 working locally, with police escorts because of death threats received, is the fault of all the other journalists who are too closely connected with politicians and cultivate such conflicts of interest.”

Ruotolo, who has received multiple threats, was assigned a police escort. This was revoked by interior minister Matteo Salvini, then reinstated. The removal of his security was criticised by the public which, says Ruotolo, underlines the appetite for proper reporting.

“My experience proves the Italian people’s demand for information,” he said. “In an age of ignorance, the public is reclaiming its right to hear the truth. To me, this is of enormous political significance.”

Why Should We Care About Local Journalism?

Local reporting in France and Belgium has often lacked audacity in holding local officials, companies or institutions to account, or in covering potentially divisive stories. However, it has been providing an essential public interest service by informing on concrete issues, by helping create a public forum and by giving a visibility to many people and communities who were – or felt – shunned by national media. The demise of local reporting undermines all journalism, creating black holes at the moment when understanding the “backcountry” is crucial. It threatens to play the game of populism by exacerbating the sense of being “dumped” and forgotten, of living in “fly-over/drive-by” towns and villages.

JEAN-PAUL MARTHOZ, a Belgian journalist and columnist for Le Soir