The hidden drama of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and the gagging of journalists to prevent them from telling the story

Deaths:399.Missing:487.It is the tragic toll of the shipwrecks that occurred in the first six months of 2024 on the central Mediterranean route, according to the data published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).Yet, while hundreds of people continue to die at sea trying to reach our coasts, in Italy it is increasingly difficult to account for shipwrecks:journalists are kept away from the ports and the press has to face a series of obstacles in reporting these events, which now end up being surrounded by an impenetrable rubber wall.

The problem is not new:for years, the difficulties faced by reporters in accessing the ports have been compounded by the impossibility of coming into contact with the survivors, which makes it practically impossible to independently reconstruct the truth of the facts.Added to this is the scarcity of official communications, and the continuous request for authorization to approach the dock.“Before, reporters could access ports to report on shipwrecks, but for several years it has been difficult to get close,” he tells Blue suitcase Eleonora Camilli, journalist expert in migration who writes for the newspaper The print.“It was a gradual change:today there is a great physical distance between those who tell and those who should be told."

The question is back in the news after the shipwreck in mid-June, which occurred on the same route as the Cutro shipwreck of February 2023, in which it is estimated that around 70 people died.What happened prompted several experts to argue that the government wanted to "hide" the event to avoid another media case:the 11 survivors were taken to the port of Roccella Ionica, in the province of Reggio Calabria, but the journalists were kept away from the dock.The bodies of the dead people were instead landed in various Calabrian ports:the Mem.Med association (Mediterranean Memory) he counted at least some six, even at distances of tens of kilometers - Locri, Polistena, Soverato, Siderno, Gioia Tauro, Reggio Calabria.Often the bodies were transported during the night, when the darkness prevented us from understanding and documenting what was happening.And even the survivors, in need of treatment, were admitted to different hospitals.

Cutro massacre, an international investigation shows that Italy lied

“No mortuary with rows of coffins occupied public television, no condolences from institutions, no comments from government officials and the State”, wrote Mem.Med.“From a media point of view, where the bodies, the coffins, the excruciating pain could not be seen, the narrative retreated, leaving a great void.There are no remains of the boat - still sunk in the high seas - no objects belonging to the survivors or victims are visible, there are no messages of solidarity."

The constant violations of freedom of the press during the landings

On June 25th, the directors and journalists of Crotone sent a message letter to the prefect denouncing that "they want to keep the press away from migrants".The letter speaks of a "hostile climate towards us", highlighting how "on the evening of Monday 24 June, on the occasion of the arrival of the Coast Guard ship Diciotti, with on board five bodies of migrants who died in the shipwreck of the last few days at off the Calabrian coast, reporters were actually banned from entering."This is nothing new:journalists report that for about two years it has become increasingly difficult to document the arrivals of migrants at the port of Crotone.To access it, you must ask for authorization at each individual event.“Usually, when we find out about a landing, we have to send an email to three different addresses and wait for authorizations, hoping that someone will read those requests,” they write.“However, despite regular requests, complete with acceptance via email, it also happened that someone claimed that we had no right to work in that place.The current bureaucratic procedure not only delays the carrying out of our work, which in cases like this requires maximum promptness, but has sometimes represented a real obstacle to the right to freedom of the press that we exercise on a daily basis".

The problem does not only concern the port of Crotone:journalists were also forbidden to approach the Roccella Ionica platform, and an area for reporters was identified on the platform, marked off on the ground with the writing "Press".“For the first time in over 20 years of continuous landings, even tragic ones, the operations were carried out on the furthest quay and at a great distance from the journalists", complaint the Calabrian broadcaster LaC News.“More than a week after the events, no press point has yet been organised, and the few official updates released by the prefecture and captaincy have remained limited to scant press releases that often contradict each other”.

Not only:journalists who want to document disembarkation operations in ports are even forced to pay a fee.Since September 2023, an accreditation obligation for journalists, photographers and operators has been in force in the port of Roccella which involves the payment of a tax stamp of 16 euros.The same applies in the port of Reggio Calabria.For this reason, on 26 June aparliamentary question to the Ministry of Infrastructure, by some senators of the Democratic Party, where they are reminded that article 21 of the Constitution provides that the press cannot be subject to authorizations or censorship.

“Even at the port of Lampedusa the quay is closed to journalists,” explains a Blue suitcase the journalist Eleonora Camilli.“To witness the landings you have to climb the wall of a concrete square adjacent to the rocks, but you can't get close:the migrants are immediately loaded onto buses and taken directly tohotspot”.Me too'hotspot it is a totally inaccessible place:“Since 2016-2017, when the European Agenda for Migration came into force, thehotspot it was closed to journalists,” continues Camilli.“If you want to interview someone, you have to wait for them to approach the gate.Or you can climb a hill back there, from where you can see inside, to understand the conditions in which these people live."

There are those who watch from the earth, and those who do it from the sky.Like the NGO planes, which not only monitor possible shipwrecks and boats in difficulty, but document the rejections with photos and videos, bringing a unique testimony to what happens in the middle of the sea.At the beginning of May the National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) blocked NGO planes in the central Mediterranean, issuing a series of ordinances which provide for the "ban on the operation of aircraft".“We are faced with an ugly imitation of the Piantedosi decree which aims to turn a blind eye to the disgrace and continuous violations of human rights that occur in the central Mediterranean by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, supported and handsomely subsidized by Italy and the EU ”, he has declared Sea Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi.It's not the first time this has happened:already in 2019 ENAC had forbidden two aircraft from the Humanitarian Pilots Initiative, in collaboration with Sea-Watch and Pilotes Volontaires, to patrol the same area of ​​the Mediterranean.

The effects of the Piantedosi Decree on rescue at sea

“We also want to silence this other voice, the eyes that see from above,” comments Eleonora Camilli.“In the meantime, the situation for those who flee is increasingly dangerous.With increasingly restrictive policies on departures and agreements with countries such as Tunisia and Libya, today the boats leave even more crowded with people:often these are iron boats that capsize after the first wave."It was always this June recovered a small boat left Libya, there were ten people locked underneath in the hold, eight died of asphyxiation.To recover them, the rescuers had to demolish part of the ship's deck with ax blows.

Media freedom under attack with the Meloni government

But the problem does not only concern the story of the landings:the Meloni government is trying to restrict freedom of the press in many ways, causing concern at an international level, from the situation of governance Rai alla possible sale of AGI to a majority parliamentarian, up to defamation law.

The far right continues to work to control information

The latest alarm was launched on 10 July by the European Movement International, a pro-European organization which acts as an umbrella for European trade unions and political families (including the Popolari, the liberal formations, the Socialist Party, the Greens, the Confederation of European Trade Unions and many other realities).The European Movement International sent a letter to the Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová, asking to investigate the government's attacks on media freedom.The concern also arose from the postponement of publication of the European Commission's annual report on the rule of law in Italy, scheduled for early July.The report could shine a light on the Italian government's attacks on media freedom, but its release has been delayed while awaiting the final reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen as president of the Commission, hoping for the support of leaders including Giorgia Meloni to secure a second mandate.

Meanwhile, the monitors of the Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom has attested to the restriction of media freedom in Italy:compared to the previous year, our country moves from the low risk band to the medium risk band in a crucial sector such as that of the so-called "fundamental protection", which evaluates whether the basic conditions for free and independent journalism exist, a also followed by threats, pressure and reckless complaints against journalists.In all areas that concern pluralism, from "fundamental protection" to "market plurality" and that is ownership structures, passing through "independence from politics" and "social inclusiveness", Italy is now in a medium risk.

Also the World Press Freedom Index 2024 by Reporters Without Borders, the world index of press freedom, had already seen a relegation of five positions by Italy, which thus ended up in the "problem" areas together with Hungary.Last May there was the mission of the European Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium to take stock of the dozens of alert episodes reported in Italy.The European delegates had asked to be received by the Minister of Justice, or by the president of the Senate Justice Commission and by all the group leaders of the same commission.But without success.“We are disappointed because we did not meet any of the government representatives,” he said declared Sielke Kelner from the Media Freedom Rapid Response team.

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