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00:00He never goes to meetings on his own.
00:02Every time he moves, he is accompanied by several plainclothes police officers.
00:07As a journalist, threatened by the mafia, Lirio Abati has been living under police
00:12protection for 17 years. His daily life is one of limitations and lack of freedom.
00:21It's a very controlled life with very little freedom. It's been years since I've been to the
00:26beach. I have to avoid anything that is spontaneous or improvised, like taking a
00:31plane or a train without pre-planning. And I avoid crowded places.
00:37Due to his investigations, Lirio has been targeted by Cosa Nostra,
00:41the Sicilian mafia, but also by the Calabrian Endrangheta and extreme right-wing groups.
00:48Several attack plans against me have been uncovered during investigations into the mafia.
00:53One time, they placed a bomb under a car in front of my house.
00:58The mafia see investigative journalists as bad cops, so to speak.
01:02Someone who's delving into other people's business, who's going beyond what a journalist
01:06should do and should therefore be punished. So you become a target.
01:11Since 1960, 30 Italian journalists have been killed whilst doing their job. One of them was
01:17Alberto Spampinato's brother. He has set up an organisation to monitor threats against journalists.
01:24Since 2006, we have recorded more than 7,000 acts of hostility and threats
01:31towards journalists. We have also recorded more than 10,000 attacks against journalists.
01:39In addition to physical threats, there are also acts of legal intimidation,
01:47more pernicious. Attilio Bolzoni has had to face dozens of defamation cases.
01:54I've always won these cases. But for independent journalists who don't have the support of a big
02:00news organisation with a legal support team, it's a big risk. And so they hesitate before writing
02:06the story. And often they will submit to self-censorship because they can't afford potential
02:11legal fees. Since last January, 203 acts of intimidation against journalists have been
02:17recorded in the country, proof that there is still a long way to go to achieve press freedom in Italy.