Reporter’s car is chased and rammed while he is guarded by police

A reporter for the newsweekly L’Espresso and an information heroe for Reporters Without Borders, Abbate has had police protection since 2007 because of the many threats he has received from the mafia. When Abbate left L’Espresso at round 10 p.m. on 11 November in an unmarked police car with two policemen, another car pursued them through central Rome, rammed them and then drove off. After a brief chase, one of Abbate’s police bodyguards managed to arrest the driver but the passenger got away on foot. The documents found in the car belong to an Egyptian citizen who is not known to the police. When questioned at a nearby police station, the driver denied any knowledge of what took place. Shortly before this incident, a TV station broadcast an interview with Abbate in which he revealed details of his investigation into the presence in Rome of mafia families from outside the city and their collaboration with local criminals. Francesca Fagnani, the journalist who interviewed Abbate, received death threats on the programme’s website. Abbate has done a lot of investigative reporting on organized crime in Rome in recent years. He was the target of another act of intimidation when one of his stories was published in L’Espresso in mid-September. A bullet with the message “This is for Abbate” was found on the seat of a stolen car that was left badly parked near L’Espresso’s office. Last week’s incident was the first in Italy in which a journalist has been attacked while being escorted by police officers. Italy is ranked 49th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.