Lirio Abbate

Lirio Abbate (2011)

Lirio Abbate (born February 26, 1971 in Castelbuono , Italy ) is an Italian journalist for the Italian magazine L'espresso . Before that he was a correspondent in Sicily for the ANSA news agency and the La Stampa newspaper .

Life

Lirio Abbate was born in Castelbuono in the province of Palermo and began his journalistic career in 1990 at the Giornale di Sicilia until he switched to ANSA in 1997. In 1998 he also started working for La Stampa. In 2003 he was named Journalist of the Year by the Unione Nazionale Cronisti (Unci). He reported on the mafia and illegal immigration on the Sicilian coast. He was the only journalist in April 2006 when the “boss of the bosses” of the Cosa Nostra, Bernardo Provenzano , was arrested after 43 years on the run.

Abbate angered the Mafia with his 2007 book I Complici ( The Accomplices ), published with Peter Gomez , in which he investigated links between politicians and Bernardo Provenzano. Police eavesdropping logs could be heard talking about silencing Abbate so that he and his wife could receive police protection.

On the night of September 2, 2007, his bodyguards surprised two men while they were placing a homemade bomb under his car. This attempted murder was a few days after Abbate returned to Palermo and was threatened for several months following his book publication.

Mafia boss Leoluca Bagarella publicly threatened him during a trial in October 2007. "I've been more concerned since this matter," said Abbate. “Bagarella sent a message to his accomplices by giving my name at the public hearing. He has been in prison since 1995 and since I've been working for a news agency, my articles have not been identified by name. How did he know that it was me who wrote certain articles? "

Despite the threats and police protection, Abbate did not leave Palermo. "Had I left after they put a bomb under my car, I would have set a bad example for the other Sicilians," he said. “In this way I showed that I am not afraid that the state will protect me and that I will carry on.” In 2009 Abbate finally left Palermo to work in Rome.

On May 3, 2014, International Press Freedom Day , he was honored by Reporters Without Borders with the “Freedom of Information Heroes” award.

Works

• Nostra mafia dei monti - dal processo alle cosche delle Madonie al caso Contrada , Spoleto: Dharba Editore 1993
• La storia del giro podistico di Castelbuono - La corsa su strada più antica d'Italia , Palermo: Promos Editore, 1994
• La mafia che ho conosciuto , Edizioni Espero 1996
• I complici. Tutti gli uomini di Bernardo Provenzano da Corleone al Parlamento (with Peter Gomez), Rome: Fazi Editore 2007 ISBN 978-88-8112-786-3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography on Fazi editore ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Italian) 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Living on the Mafia hit list - a journalist's tale , Reuters, October 23, 2007
3. ↑ ^{a b} European Union: Risks faced by journalists  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Reporters Without Borders, May 2008  
4. ↑ Lirio Abbate minacciato dalla mafia ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , La Stampa, September 6, 2007 (Italian) 
5. ^ Vita sotto assedio di un cronista a Palermo , La Repubblica, September 5, 2007 (Italian)
6. ^ Reporters Without Borders eV: Heroes of Freedom of the Press. Retrieved February 3, 2018 . 

Web links

Video interview with Abbate on the YouTube video portal