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Giancarlo Siani

Giancarlo Siani

Mafia
Italy
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Italian version

WHO WAS

A journalist, he was waiting to be permanently employed by his newspaper, but the hiring came only after his death. At a very young age, Giancarlo Siani began to collaborate with some Neapolitan periodicals, taking an interest in the problems of the world of work and marginalised individuals , the main labour force of the organised crime syndicate, the Camorra. Then Siani started working as a correspondent from Torre Annunziata for the newspaper Il Mattino which relied upon the separate editorial staff based in Castellammare di Stabia. Siani carried out important investigations on local bosses, an excellent piece of reporting that led him to become correspondent for the newspaper within a year and to have the promise of a formal contract. Giancarlo Siani, in the article published on the 10th June 1985 – an article that the prosecutor Armando D’Alterio who led the investigation into his murder, regarded as his death sentence – wrote that the arrest of the boss Valentino Gionta was possible due to a “tip-off” from the Nuvoletta clan to the police. In fact, Gionta the boss of Torre Annunziata had been arrested in Marano, Nuvoletta territory. Siani’s intuition had provoked the wrath of the Nuvoletta brothers who, in the eyes of the other Neapolitan bosses, were made to appear treacherous. On September 23rd 1985, shortly after turning 26, Giancarlo Siani was killed at 9.50 pm. He had just left the central editorial office of Il Mattino whose chief editor at the time was Pasquale Nonno.

 

(Source: Unci – the national union of Italian reporters- with the contribution of family members)

READ HIS STORY

  • Biography of Giancarlo Siani
    from the site giancarlosiani.it, aken from Memorial Day of journalists killed by mafias and terrorism, 2008)
  • The story of Giancarlo Siani
    from the website of the Giancarlo Siani Foundation recently established by his closest relatives in order to keep his memory alive

THE SEARCH FOR THOSE RESPONSIBLE

(Update by Raffaella Della Morte – 3 May 2020)

Twelve years had to pass before dealing with the causes that had led organized crime to take Siani’s life. The truth was obtained thanks to the investigations conducted by the young Prosecutor of the Italian Republic Armando D’Alterio together with the “flying squad”  of Naples.

  • 1997 – On the 15th April 1997 the second section of the Naples Court of Assizes sentenced to life imprisonment the brothers Lorenzo and Angelo Nuvoletta and Luigi Baccante as instigators of the murder and Ciro Cappuccio and Armando Del Core as executors of it. That same sentence included also the boss Valentino Gionta for having ordered it. The sentence was confirmed by the Court of Cassation, which however had ordered the referral regarding Valentino Gionta to another Court of Assizes of Appeal.
  • 2003 – In order to determine the responsibility of Valentino Gionta a trial was held which on the 29th September 2003 sentenced him to life imprisonment on appeal. Subsequently, the Supreme Court has definitively cleared him for not having committed the crime. To determine his acquittal were the reconstructions of those collaborators with justice system according to whom, when Valentino Gionta was asked by the exponents of the Nuvoletta clan, to participate in the murder of the journalist, he had opposed the crime. In Gionta’s opinion the predictable reaction from the state would have caused problems for the activities of the clans in Torre Annunziata where Siani had worked. Valentino Gionta received several convictions for other Camorra crimes, including associating with a mafia-like organisation.
  • On October 20, 2013 Angelo Nuvoletta dies in prison.
  • 2014 – In an investigative book published twenty-nine years after Siani’s death, the Neapolitan journalist Roberto Paolo raised some doubts about the identity of the real perpetrators of the murder and indicated the names of other possible principals and executors. The revelations collected in Paolo’s book attribute responsibility for the murder to the Giuliano di Forcella clan. The alleged motive was the fact that Siani collected and published news that annoyed the Camorra in the business of managing the cooperatives of former prisoners, on which the Neapolitan clan and that of Torre Annunziata made large profits. A scenario that, according to Roberto Paolo could be linked with the elements with which the Giontas and Nuvolettas were charged.

RECOGNITION

  • 2009 – Marco Risi’s film Fortapàsc starring Libero De Rienzo, is released. The award-winning film reconstructs the brief existence and tragic end of the young journalist killed by the Camorra, thus making him known to the general public. A remark that has become famous, said by the actor who plays the figure of a chief editor who tells Giancarlo Siani of the film “you are a journalist’s-journalist” starts a self-examination in the world of journalism.
  • 2013 – The Polis Foundation, together with the families of the innocent victims of crime in Campania and Libera and Ossigeno per l’Informazione, organized “Traveling with the Mehari“, a tour focussed on legality, freedom and the fight against mafias. It set off from Naples and visited several Italian and European cities. On the initiative of Ossigeno, Giancarlo Siani’s car, the Citroen Mehari, was displayed in Rome in front of the entrance to the Italian Chamber of deputies and the Senate, and in Brussels in front of the entrance to the European Parliament and the Italian Institute of Culture. On the occasion in Rome, the families of killed journalists met with the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso and the Speaker of the House, Laura Boldrini, as well as with the then President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. Siani’s Mehari was therefore chosen as a symbol to remember all the stories of journalists killed by mafias and all the innocent victims of organized crime.
  • 2016 – On the 19th  September 2016, thirty-one years after the death of Giancarlo Siani, a street art work dedicated to the life of the young journalist was inaugurated in via Vincenzo Romaniello. The mural was created by the Italian artist couple Orticanoodles. It is characterized by two predominant colours: the green of Giancarlo’s Mehari and the sepia gray like the ink of his Olivetti M80. The work also has a didactic function, especially in the superimposition of seven quotes linked to seven great characters that describe Giancarlo’s thought, actions and life: Alda Merini, Nelson Mandela, Wilbur F. Storey, Albert Camus, Benjamin Constant, Alexis de Tocqueville and Vasco Rossi. The project was realized thanks to a crowd funding campaign entitled “A mural for Giancarlo Siani” and was curated by INWARD an observatory of urban creativity with the collaboration of Giancarlo’s friends and the properties of via Romaniello.
  • 2019 –The Giancarlo Siani Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation led by the sons of Giancarlo’s brother Paolo, , is born. The non-profit foundation was born from the will of relatives to keep the memory alive, especially among new generations. It pursues the aims of solidarity, cultural development and social integration. Furthermore, it aims to keep alive the memory of all journalists killed by mafias; supporting journalists threatened by mafias for simply carrying out their job; defending freedom of the press and of expression in all its forms; honouring the memory of all innocent victims of crime so that their sacrifice was not in vain. It also promotes  the development in society of a civil conscience, of an active citizenship for the rejection of any form of violence and oppression, also through early interventions in childhood, starting from the first thousand days of life, especially in contexts of marginalization and social hardship.
  • The Foundation is responsible for organizing the Giancarlo Siani Award, dedicated to school students of all levels and levels, which takes place on the 23rd  September each year in Naples. The award was established in 2004. It is promoted by the Giancarlo Siani Foundation, the Pol.i.s Foundation, the Order of Journalists of Campania, the Unitary Union of Campania Journalists, the Suor Orsola Benincasa University and the newspaper “Il Mattino”. Every year, it collaborates with the Campania Region, the Municipality of Naples, Libera, the Campania Coordination of the families of innocent victims of crime and the Documentation and Research Centre Association.
  • Various streets and schools are dedicated to Giancarlo Siani throughout the Campania region.
  • 2019 – In September 2019, a Hall of Memory was inaugurated at the Palazzo delle Arti in Naples in the atrium named after Siani, entirely dedicated to the innocent victims of crime in Campania and the young journalist. In the room, in addition to the faces of all those who lost their lives in Campania at the hands of criminals, there are some unpublished photos of Siani and his Citroen Mehari, the car in which he was killed. There is also the Ossigeno panel which collectively remembers all Italian journalists killed because of their work while “looking for the truth”.
  • 2019 – In December 2019 the Municipality of Torre Annunziata grants posthumous honorary citizenship to Giancarlo Siani and inaugurates a white bench, a symbol of press freedom in the town.

BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS

  • Associazione Centro di Documentazione e Ricerca, La Rivista dei giornali. Ricerche sulla stampa quotidiana e periodica. Numero speciale, Iod edizioni in collaborazione con la Fondazione Pol.i.s., il Coordinamento campano dei familiari delle vittime innocenti della criminalità, Libera.
  • Francesco Bellofatto, Paolo Giannino, Piero Avallone (a cura di), L’eclissi della legalità: dedicato a Giancarlo Siani, Napoli, 1995.
  • Maria Rosaria Carbone, Maurizio Cerino, Da Corleone a Torre Annunziata: il caso Siani, 1999.
  • Giacomo Cavalcanti, L’imprudente, Edizioni Nuova Prhomos, Città di Castello 2018.
  • Angelo Cerbone, Tecniche per un massacro: Siani, Sindona, Silenzio, 1988.
  • Erri De Luca, Il cronista scalzo, Prismi editore, Napoli, 1996.
  • Bruno De Stefano, Giancarlo Siani. Passione e morte di un giornalista scomodo, Roma, Giulio Perrone Editore, 2012.
  • Gildo De Stefano, Caro Giancarlo…  Epistolario mensile per un amico ammazzato, Innuendo Edizioni, Terracina 2014.
  • Achille della Ragione, Un coraggioso reporter in Quei Napoletani da ricordare tomoI, Napoli, 2018.
  • Alessandro Di Virgilio e Emilio Lecce, Giancarlo Siani: … e lui che mi sorride, Roma, Round Robin editrice, 2010.
  • Geppino Fiorenza (a cura), La ri-vista dei giornali. Ricerche sulla stampa quotidiana e periodica. Giancarlo Siani (1985-2015) trent’anni, Iod edizioni, Casalnuovo di Napoli 2016.
  • Carola Flauto (a cura), L’importante è parlarsi. Testo teatrale sull’importanza della Costituzione, liberamente ispirato agli scritti giornalistici di Giancarlo Siani, Iod edizioni, Casalnuovo di Napoli 2019.
  • Antonio Franchini, L’abusivo, Venezia, Marsilio, 2001.
  • Alessandro Gallo, Scimmie, Navarra Editore, Palermo, 2011.
  • Amato Lamberti (a cura), Il coraggio della cronaca,Consiglio Regionale della Campania, 1991.
  • Angela Mallardo, Giancarlo Siani. Il bambino che vivrà per sempre, Buk Buk, Trapani, 2018.
  • Lorenzo Marone, Un ragazzo normale, Feltrinelli, Milano 2018.
  • Paolo Miggiano, Le strade della Mehari di Giancarlo Siani, Alessandro Polidoro editore, Napoli, 2018.
  • Luciano Mirone, Gli insabbiati, Storie di giornalisti uccisi dalla mafia e sepolti dall’indifferenza, Roma, 2008.
  • Roberto Paolo, Il caso non è chiuso. La verità sull’omicidio Siani, Castelvecchi  editore, Roma, 2014.
  • Raffaele Sardo, Giancarlo Siani. Il ragazzo che amava la vita. Intervista a Paolo Siani e Daniela Rossignaud,Iod edizioni, Casalnuovo di Napoli 2018.
  • Giancarlo Siani, Giancarlo Siani giornalista per la verità, a cura di Amato Lamberti, Geppino Fiorenza, Paolo Siani, Napoli, L’Isola dei Ragazzi, 2001.
  • Giancarlo Siani, Le parole di una vita: gli scritti giornalistici, Phoebus, 2006.
  • UNCI,Giornata della memoria dei giornalisti uccisi da mafie e terrorismo, Roma, 2008.

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