Beppe Grillo's Blog

Santa Mafia

Blog interview: Petra Reski
(6:42)

It’s paradoxical that a book is censored at source. During printing. With black lines drawn on the pages. It’s happened to "Santa Mafia" by Petra Reskii in Germany. The book has also been published in the Italian edition with the pages blacked out. Anyone could have a go at guessing who are the “characters” as Petra calls them that “cannot be cited”. For us Italians it is easier than for the Germans. Mafia capital can buy up Europe and they are doing that just about everywhere. Petra explains that in her book. The European Mafia Community is just a matter of time.

“I am Petra Reski and I have written the book : “Santa Mafia”, that has been published in Italy by the publishing house “Nuovi Mondi”. I am very happy that it has come out in Italy, however I am equally bitter as the first reaction has been the threat of a court action by Marcello Dell’Utri. Certain protagonists who didn’t want to be named in the book have managed to censor my book, and when these people got this censorship, it was for me a very humiliating experience: to be there, in the presence of these protagonists in the Tribunal and to be derided by the judge, is not something that is simple to digest. In Germany, when the book came out, there were very few reactions, to tell the truth, about what happened because I believe that to censor a book on the mafia is not something that touches me personally, however it touches the Germans, because it sends a very special signal to the mafia. To make a journalist stay silent with a verdict, is something that gives a very positive signal to the mafia in Germany. Unfortunately, the Germans feel that up until now, they are completely immune to the danger of the mafia, and especially the ‘ndrangheta. They did wake up for a few seconds, after the happening s in Duisburg, after the massacre, however, for the rest, they have a blind faith in their laws and obviously they believe themselves to be immune from any type of mafia infiltration, as has happened in Italy and they do not see that the mafia are behaving in Germany in accordance with German law and they are not killing each other on the streets like they do in Calabria or in Sicily. So the Germans are always thinking that this is an Italian problem; that the mafia only exists in Italy, in some backward country of the South and I find this fairly hypocritical by all countries, not just by Germany in relation to Italy. Everyone considers Italy to be bad even, rightly, for the lack of success in the fight against the mafia, however, no one looks inside their own country for money laundering, in as much as the money that is earned with drug trafficking by the ‘ndrangheta, for example, is invested in Germany and laundered in Germany: not only in Germany, also in France, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and even Spain.
Unlike in Italy, in Germany there is no crime of mafia association. German politics has not yet discovered this topic for themselves, on neither the Left , nor the Right, because anyway, the mafia money was welcome after the fall of the wall, when there was so much investment in the East of Germany and as long as the Germans are not talking about any worries for this mafia phenomenon, the politicians obviously are not seeing it for themselves as a topic that they could exploit to get them votes. Given that the Germans think that the mafia does not exist, there is even less of an anti-mafia movement and so I felt really alone. The only thing that I have to thank Italy for is that in Italy I didn’t have to explain what it is to have a mafia threat. They understood what I said straight away and many journalists have supported me, and Beppe Grillo’s Blog and without the Italians I would have felt really humiliated and very much alone. For this reason I want to thank the Italians once more.
The fact that Marcello Dell’Utri straight away announced a court action is a signal that I find to be very worrying for the whole freedom of the press. When one talks about crimes and bad things, there is straight away a verdict against a journalist to silence them and obviously, this is why the people cannot get the information: it is a protection that is given also by the justice system. When I was at the Dell’Utri trial, I was the only journalist and I remember there were also other journalists that came, but there was no one from the national press. I was amazed at that, because if someone like Marcello Dell’Utri … there’s a trial against him and there is no one from the other major newspapers, like “Il Corriere” or “La Repubblica”. This amazed me, because there’s so much talk about the transfer of a journalist and whatever else, but there was no talk about Dell’Utri. Up until now, something that I have noticed about the television, especially the Italian TV, is that the people are not informed. So many Italian young people are starting to get informed through the blogs, because, in the end, they are the only source to get good information. I find that to silence all the journalists who are doing their job, applying the law against the journalists, I find that to be very worrying.”

Comments

The so called "director general" of the Italian public broadcasting system (RAI) is annoyed (to say the least) by a weekly political investigative show called "Annozero". Annozero engages in in-depth investigative reporting and does not hesitate to denounce political wrongdoings of any kind: from government members in collusion with Mafiosi, to political fraud in high places, to Berlusconi's escapades with call-girls and worse. It is a program politicians love to hate and, consequently, is also hated by the bureaucrats running public television. They accuse the host of the show, Santoro and his editorialist Marco Travaglio, of being anti-government and breaking the rules of public institutions or, in other words, of telling Italians about the rot in their political system. "Annozero" is one of the most followed shows in Italy, its popularity brings plenty of revenues but they don't seem to matter to Masi, the "director general" of RAI, who brags about running the public broadcasting system as a for-profit enterprise. All he worries about is saving the face of a government with Mafia connections attached to Masonic secret organizations. And how does Masi do this? His observations of the American and British public broadcasting systems tell him that they are not allowed to attack their governments with the intensity "Annozero" does on the Italian public broadcasting system. Of course the "director general" is comparing apples with oranges: corruption and bad government are not as acute or as deep as they are in the Italian way of governing and neither the British Prime Minister nor the President of the United States owns his nation's media as does the Italian Prime Minister. Annozero reporting is conditioned by the happenings and behaviour of Italy's political caste, organized crime and the selfish entrepreneural class. The show is as outrageous as the material it has to work with, no more and no less.

Posted by: Louis Pacella | September 24, 2009 09:17 PM

Martial Law ( biased in favour of the prosecuting State) is essential for all terroristic and anti-National activities which are acts of Treason in so far as these activities destroy the National Image and Identity abroad.
Like a deserter in time of War, the terrorist that includes a Mafioso should be shot on the mere basis of having been apprehended in a terroristic activity. For example, possession of weapons and explosives, capture during an action of resistance or escaping from the Public Security Forces, should be sufficient proof for shooting and in the back like CIANO was.
These actions by the State would slowly reduce the sense mof safety and protection from the n L:aw that these people are enjoying and their attitude of defiance and lack of respect for the Law and the Law Enforcers.
Some errors of judgment may occurr but it is better to err by excess than fail miserably for the present weackness and cowardice facing terrorists. A void would be created around terrorists, weakening and isolating them by the increasing disapproval of the masses. As things are now it is glorious, respect-building and of a martyr to be a terrorist. Normal criminals would still be treated by Democratic and humane Laws.

Posted by: Attilio Louis Ferreri | September 24, 2009 08:20 PM

Imagine a minister of public administration wishing publically the death of half his countrymen and still be minister. In a country with the least sense of indignation it wouldn't be imagined. He would surely have been relieved or, if the minister had a sense of what is right or wrong, he would have resigned. Italy's Minister of Public Administration, Brunetta, (yes, he is a minister in Berlusconi's government) augured, last week, the death of all Italians with left-leaning political persuasions. That's at least fifty percent of the Italian population. Tell-tale of a hateful heart? Sure is. But what brought this ugly, hateful remark to the surface? Brunetta says that he feels the left is about to stage a coupe d'etat. Of course, such statements can only be triggered by a nightmare brought on by too much eating during an evening of cavorting with young models in Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia. But, more likely, the Minister's dire outburst was nothing but the result of swallowing, in Hamlet's words, "the slings and arrows of political outrageous fortune", raining over Silvio's head during the summer months. But of course, an extreme outburst such as Brunetta made (the left should go and die), can always be dismissed as hasty words spoken in anger, but can those words be ignored when a Minister voiced them to the press? I mean, after all Italy has three thousand soldiers in Afghanistan and, among so many soldiers there, could there be a few with leftist political leanings?

Posted by: louis pacella | September 24, 2009 10:45 AM

Vergogna!

Posted by: Simon Carey | September 23, 2009 09:38 PM