OUR SCHOOL, “WALTER TOBAGI”

Assemblea , via Skype, tra gli studenti delle scuole di giornalismo di Mosca e Milano. Alla Casa dei giornalisti della capitale russa si sono trovati (insieme ai colleghi della Novaja Gazeta) gli studenti della MGU, la principale università di giornalismo della capitale russa, la stessa dove ha studiato Anna Politkovskaja. E proprio dalla figura della giornalista russa assassinata il 7 ottobre del 2006 da sconosciuti, è partita la discussione sulla libertà di stampa in Europa.

Da Milano ci siamo connessi dalla scuola di giornalismo “Walter Tobagi”, dell’Università Statale di Milano. E proprio dal collega assassinato trent’anni fa è partito il discorso dei praticanti italiani. Ecco quel che hanno scritto e mandato a Mosca come contributo, tre degli studenti milanesi: Carlotta Mariani, Micol Sarfatti e Massimo Tagariello.

Ad maiora.

Ps. Sono gli stessi giovani giornalisti (a Milano e ovunque in Italia) cui le redazioni (stimolate dalla FNSI) in questi giorni sbattono le porte in faccia e boicottano gli stage. Salvo poi, quando escono le statistiche ISTAT sui cosiddetti bamboccioni, sollevare il solito finto pianto greco sui giovani che non hanno opportunità. Alla faccia della coerenza.

………………………………………………………………………………

Our school’s name is Walter Tobagi.
Walter Tobagi was an italian journalist killed on 28th of May 1980, exactly 30 years ago. He was involved in articles about terrorism and violent groups that were trying to take control of the Italian Government and was shot because of that.
Walter Tobagi was not the only one. Giovanni Spampinato, Giuseppe Fava, Carlo Siani are just some names of italian journalists killed by mafia all around the country. And the list could be much longer.
Roberto Saviano, the writer who denounced the dark affairs of the Camorra in his book “Gomorrah”, has been living under escort for 4 years now. He is often accused by politicians of using mafia issues for purposes of fame and success.
According to the latest survey from Reporters Sans Frontieres, Italy has plummes from the 35th rank in 2007 to the 49th last year. Our country is labelled as “partly-free”, the only case in Western Europe.

Nowadays there’s a harsch debate about a decree intending to rule out the publishing of telephone leaks until judicial investigations are done. Many media editors, even the ones siding the Government, are opposing this prospective law, claiming that without this kind of information many of the recent political and economic scandals would not have been uncovered.

Last but not least, most journalists are not free to write whatever they want out of unsustainable pressures by the media ownership. Almost all of the owners of newspapers, radios and tv’s have their core business in some other industries, which forbids reporting bad news about them.

We end up asking ourselves the big question: is there freedom of press in our country? We wouldn’t go straightforward with a “yes” or “no”. But we will keep asking it again and again.