COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS 330 7th Avenue, 11th Fl., New York, NY 10001 USA Phone: (212) 465-1004 Fax: (212) 465-9568 Web: www.cpj.org E-Mail: [email protected] HONORARY CO-CHAIRMAN Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) HONORARY CO-CHAIRMAN April 19, 2011 Terry Anderson CHAIRMAN Paul E. Steiger His Excellency Giorgio Napolitano PROPUBLICA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR President of the Italian Republic Joel Simon DIRECTORS Palazzo del Quirinale Andrew Alexander Franz Allina 00187 Roma Christiane Amanpour ABC NEWS Italia Dean Baquet THE NEW YORK TIMES Kathleen Carroll THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Via email: [email protected] Rajiv Chandrasekaran THE WASHINGTON POST Sheila Coronel COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Dear President Napolitano, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM Josh Friedman COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonpartisan organization Anne Garrels NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO dedicated to defending the rights of journalists worldwide, is deeply concerned about James C. Goodale DEBEVOISE & PLIMPTON local authorities’ harassment of journalists and media outlets who criticize the official Cheryl Gould NBC NEWS investigation into the November 2007 brutal murder of British exchange student Charlayne Hunter-Gault Gwen Ifill Meredith Kercher in the central Italian city of Perugia. CPJ is particularly troubled by PBS Jane Kramer the manifest intolerance to criticism displayed by Perugia Public Prosecutor Giuliano THE NEW YORKER David Laventhol Mignini, who has filed or threatened to file criminal lawsuits against individual Lara Logan CBS NEWS reporters, writers, and press outlets, both in Italy and the United States, in connection Rebecca MacKinnon David Marash with the Kercher murder investigation as well as the investigation into the Monster of Kati Marton Michael Massing Florence serial killings. Geraldine Fabrikant Metz THE NEW YORK TIMES Victor Navasky THE NATION The Kercher murder investigation was headed by Mignini and conducted by a Perugia Andres Oppenheimer THE MIAMI HERALD police unit known as the Squadra Mobile. Mignini was also in charge of the latest Burl Osborne FREEDOM COMMUNICATIONS investigation into the unsolved murders of eight couples in Tuscany between 1968 and Clarence Page CHICAGO TRIBUNE 1985, collectively known as the Monster of Florence killings because of the especially Norman Pearlstine BLOOMBERG L.P. cruel manner in which the victims were slain. Ahmed Rashid Dan Rather HDNET Gene Roberts The anti-press actions of Squadra Mobile under Mignini’s supervision, coupled with PHILIP MERRILL COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND Mignini’s longstanding record of harassment of journalists who criticize his conduct on María Teresa Ronderos SEMANA.COM the job, cause the press to stay away from sensitive subjects, including important Sandra Mims Rowe Diane Sawyer developments in the Kercher case such as the appeal of two defendants in the case. CPJ ABC NEWS David Schlesinger is particularly concerned about the impact Perugia authorities’ repressive actions have THOMSON REUTERS Paul C. Tash on local reporters and individual bloggers, who lack the support and backing of major ST. PETERSBURG TIMES Mark Whitaker publications. These individuals are most vulnerable to official retaliation for their work, CNN WORLDWIDE Brian Williams including legal prosecution and physical attack. NBC NEWS Matthew Winkler BLOOMBERG NEWS As the appeal of the defendants—U.S. student Amanda Knox and Italian student ADVISORY BOARD Tom Brokaw Raffaele Sollecito—continues at the appellate court of Perugia (Corte di Assise di NBC NEWS Steven L. Isenberg Appello di Perugia), we call on you to ensure that journalists, writers, and bloggers are PEN AMERICAN CENTER Anthony Lewis able to report and comment on the proceedings freely and without fear of reprisal. Charles L. Overby THE FREEDOM FORUM Erwin Potts Of the cases that have come to CPJ’s attention, one stands out because of the abusive John Seigenthaler THE FREEDOM FORUM actions employed by members of Squadra Mobile to punish a critic of the official FIRST AMENDMENT CENTER Kercher murder inquiry. Local freelance reporter Frank Sfarzo created his English- language blog Perugia Shock in 2007, days after Kercher’s gruesome murder. Based in Perugia, Sfarzo became interested in the case from the start, posting reporting and comments on it on his blog. Sfarzo regularly criticized what he considered flaws in the Kercher investigation, at times using harsh language to express his views. Sfarzo told CPJ his troubles started on October 28, 2008, the day Knox and Sollecito were indicted and a third defendant was convicted of murdering Kercher. Several members of Squadra Mobile, Sfarzo told CPJ, approached him just outside the city court (Corte di Assise di Perugia) and started to push and hit him. “You are pissing us off!”—they told him, referring to his coverage. When the trial of Knox and Sollecito began that December, Squadra Mobile continued to harass him. They regularly tried to prevent him from entering the court; seized his cellphone and went through his contacts and text messages; mouthed insults at him from across the courtroom; and stared over his shoulder as he took notes. “This was done in the presence of the judge, the Carabinieri [the military police], and the court guards, but they would do nothing,” Sfarzo told CPJ. The harassment reached its peak on September 28, 2010, when five officers of Squadra Mobile forcibly entered Sfarzo’s apartment. They did not produce a warrant or show their badges, Sfarzo told CPJ. Four of the five shoved Sfarzo to the ground, struck him, handcuffed him, and climbed on top of him, crushing his air supply, he told CPJ. They stopped when a neighbor, disturbed by the commotion, showed up, Sfarzo said. Next, the officers took Sfarzo to the Perugia city hospital, where they claimed he had attacked them; they persuaded a doctor to issue a medical report for the injuries Sfarzo was alleged to have caused. In addition, the Squadra Mobile officers brought Sfarzo before a psychiatrist, demanding that she issue him a certificate of insanity. To prove that Sfarzo was mentally ill, the officers produced Sfarzo’s reporter’s notebook on the Kercher murder case, which they had seized from his apartment. “They told the doctor that I was pathologically obsessed with the case, that I was so fixated on it I must be insane,” Sfarzo told CPJ. The psychiatrist refused to issue the certificate. From the hospital, the officers brought a handcuffed and injured Sfarzo to their headquarters, where, in the blogger’s words, they “displayed me as a trophy,” referring to him as “the bastard who defends Amanda [Knox].” The officers refused Sfarzo’s requests to call his lawyer or his relatives, and put him in a cell for the night. The next day, the officers brought Sfarzo before a local judge, who validated his arrest and indicted him on several articles of Italy’s penal code for “using violence and threats to resist public officials” and “injuring an officer.” Sfarzo was released pending a trial in May. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted. “The police can count on the complicity of judges,” Sfarzo told CPJ. Police officers, he added, are sure of their impunity. CPJ is also concerned that Prosecutor Mignini has filed or threatened to file criminal defamation lawsuits against a number of journalists and media outlets—both in Italy and in the United States—who have criticized his record. In September 2010, Giangavino Sulas, an investigative reporter with the national weekly newsmagazine Oggi, received an official notification that Mignini had started legal action against him in response to an Oggi article he had published earlier that year, Sulas told CPJ. The article in question criticized the Monster of Florence homicide investigation, which Mignini headed, and mentioned the prosecutor’s conviction on abuse of office charges related to his conduct in that case, Sulas said. Oggi editor Umberto Brindani also received two “notices of investigation” that year—dated July 24 and September 2—in relation to the magazine’s coverage of the Monster of Florence case, CPJ confirmed. Neither Sulas nor Brindani have received further prosecution notices. (In January 2010, a Florence court handed Mignini a 16-month prison term on, among other charges, illegal wiretapping of journalists who covered the Monster of Florence case. Mignini remains free and on the job while he appeals the sentence.) Back in 2006, Mignini had veteran crime reporter Mario Spezi imprisoned on a long list of trumped-up charges as retaliation for Spezi’s journalistic investigation into the Monster of Florence series of killings. CPJ advocated on Spezi’s behalf, Spezi was eventually released, and his work resulted in a best-selling true crime novel, named after the case and cowritten by U.S. writer Douglas Preston. Despite the positive dénouement, in the years after Spezi’s release, Mignini has continued to pile up indictments against the journalist in the Monster case. The indictments have been as severe as “complicity to murder,” CPJ research shows. In October 2009, when Spezi was attending a preliminary court hearing in one such indictment, he read a statement in his defense, the journalist told CPJ. The statement was sharply critical of Mignini, Spezi told CPJ. Soon after the hearing, the prosecutor indicted Spezi for “offending the honor and prestige of a judge”—a criminal charge that carries up to five years in prison if convicted. Spezi’s trial on that charge took place in February in Florence. He was found guilty in early March and sentenced either to serve 15 days in prison or to pay 570 euros (US$826) in damages to Mignini; Spezi told CPJ he has opted to pay. He and his lawyer are considering an appeal, he said. CPJ research shows Spezi no longer covers the Monster of Florence case. And the chilling effect of Mignini’s anti-press actions has reverberated across the ocean.