Two cars burning in the night outside the house of journalist Sigfrido Ranucci, host of Reports. His and his daughter’s. It is the latest, disturbing threat against those who provide free and uncompromising information.
An episode that shook the country, provoking a vast wave of solidarity from the political, civil and ecclesial world. Among the strongest and most lucid voices, that of Don Luigi Ciottifounder of Free of the Abele Groupalways on the front line for social justice and the protection of those who seek and tell the truth.
«The attack on Sigfrido Ranucci is a serious matter first of all because it put his life and that of his daughter at risk. Concern for their safety is the central theme. But the second theme concerns us all closely.
We see violent intimidation against a journalist with a straight back, used to seeking the truth outside of any conditioning. This type of journalism does an enormous service to democracy. Serious, in-depth and independent information is in fact the only one capable of ensuring citizens have those tools of awareness that can guide them in their participation in public life, from voting to small and large daily choices in the economic, social, etc. fields.
This is why I say that whoever hits Ranucci is hitting all of us. We must all feel in danger, because threatening information, trying to muzzle it, means attacking our ability to understand and decide.
The professional qualities of Sigfrido Ranucci, and of the precious staff who support him, are not in question. Yet it wasn’t because of his skill that they wanted to hit him. It’s for ethics. For loyalty to an idea of journalism that does not bend to convenience, to conflicts of interest, to the desire to “please everyone”.
Ethics in information is a guarantee of honest reporting of the facts and an always courageous search for the truth.
Siegfried and his colleagues continued to search for this truth even when it became inconvenient, because it put them in difficulty when faced with certain powers, or exposed them to retaliation on a political and judicial level.
Today we are the ones who have to make ourselves “uncomfortable” and question ourselves, as a community of readers, viewers and users of information. This violent act is a terrible wake-up call: it must make us feel more responsible towards those who spend every day to offer us tools for reading reality that are not tainted by partisan interests, sensationalism or objectives of mere profit.
Are we still able to recognize and support valuable editorial initiatives, to invest attention, trust and resources in them?
Quality journalism has a cost. And journalists cannot pay this cost themselves, as unfortunately often happens in war zones, or as happened in Italy to some good reporters who studied organized crime. Exactly forty years after the death of Giancarlo Siani, that story becomes very relevant again. But we want it to have a different ending”, concludes Don Luigi Ciotti.
The words of Libera’s founder sound like a collective call. The attack on Sigfrido Ranucci does not just concern one man or an editorial team: it concerns everyone’s right to know the truth. Defending those who provide free and courageous information means defending democracy itself.
