CROTONE «We want to continue keep the press away from places where activities involving migrants take place. And this happens more and more often when tragic events like the recent one occur shipwreck of Roccella Ionica and, before, that of Cutro fence». The position is taken by some of the directors and gods journalists of the Crotone newspapers after that On Monday evening, reporters were banned from entering the port of Crotone where the ship Eighteen was disembarking five bodies of migrants who died in the Roccella Ionica shipwreck.
«It’s been around two years – we read in the letter sent to prefect of Crotone – that it is becoming increasingly difficult for Crotone journalists to document the arrivals of migrants at the port of Crotone. To access it, in fact, you need to ask for authorization at each individual event.”
The port of Crotone is under the jurisdiction ofPort Authority of Gioia Tauro and in the case of landings the authorizations must also be granted by the Port authorities.
«The current bureaucratic procedure – we read in the letter from the Crotone journalists – 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 the press that we practice every day. Beyond some commitments made at the time, the requests to meet with the competent authorities for the purpose of meeting were to no avail regularize the entry of reporters to the port of Crotone on the occasion of landingsunfortunately numerous in our territory.”
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the entry ban yesterday on the occasion of the arrival of the Coast Guard ship Diciotti: «Moreover – the journalists point out – contrary to usual, the industrial port was chosen for the disembarkation to keep even the ‘prying’ eyes of the camera zooms are distant.”
«All this is unacceptable» the Crotone reporters write, highlighting that «on several occasions we have perceived our presence at the port as unwelcome, sensing a hostile climate towards us».
For this reason, the Crotone journalists are asking for an “urgent and no longer postponable” meeting with the competent authorities. «The climate we breathe – they conclude – is not serene, but this does not scare us. The right to freedom of the press is the basis of every civilized country and we will always be committed to guaranteeing it.”
