Two Italian journalists and support staff have received death threats for reporting on mafia boss Vittorio Casamonica’s funeral, held in Rome on 21 August.

Alessio Viscardi, an investigative reporter for the online newspaper Fanpage.it was threatened on 22 August by four people in Terzigno (40 km south of Naples), when he was looking for the airfield where the helicopter had taken off to throw rose petals on the funeral procession. The attackers took photographs of his documents and threatened to kill him.

The next day a TV crew from the public TV channel RAI 3, including journalist Alfonso Iuliano, a cameraman and a sound engineer, were shooting video in the Appio area, where several members of the Casamonica family are living, when they were attacked by local residents who threatened to kill them if they did not stop filming. Two people were arrested and charged with robbery after allegedly taking the journalists’ phones.

The IFJ and its European organisation the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) made a joint submission on the threats incidents to the Council of Europe's Plateform to promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists.