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Date sent: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 15:59:23 -0800
Subject: Media Missing New Evidence About Genoa Violence
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FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
MEDIA ADVISORY:
Media Missing New Evidence About Genoa Violence
January 10, 2003
Police in Genoa, Italy have admitted to fabricating evidence against
globalization activists in an attempt to justify police brutality
during protests at the July 2001 G8 Summit. In searches of the Nexis
database, FAIR has been unable to find a single mention of this
development in any major U.S. newspapers or magazines, national
television news shows or wire service stories.
According to reports from the BBC and the German wire service Deutsche
Presse-Agentur (1/7/03, 1/8/03), a senior Genoa police officer, Pietro
Troiani, has admitted that police planted two Molotov cocktails in a
school that was serving as a dormitory for activists from the Genoa
Social Forum. The bombs were apparently planted in order to justify
the police force's brutal July 22 raid on the school. According to the
BBC, the bombs had in fact been found elsewhere in the city, and
Troijani now says planting them at the school was a "silly" thing to
do.
The BBC and DPA also report that another senior officer has admitted
to faking the stabbing of a police officer in order to frame
protesters. These revelations have emerged over the course of a
parliamentary inquiry into police conduct that was initiated by the
Italian government under pressure from "domestic and international
outrage over the blood-soaked G8 summit in Genoa" (London Guardian,
7/31/01). Three police chiefs have been transferred and at least 77
officers have been investigated on brutality charges.
An "embarrassing" inquiry
More than 100,000 people participated in the 2001 Genoa protests, most
of them peacefully. Italian authorities, however, prepared for the
protests by ordering 200 body bags and designating a room at the Genoa
hospital as a temporary morgue (BBC, 6/21/01). Twenty thousand police
and troops were on hand, armed with tear gas, water cannon and
military hardware as authorities enclosed part of the city in a
so-called "ring of steel," with many railways and roads closed and air
traffic shut down.
The U.S. press routinely gloss over this militaristic response,
instead invoking the demonstrations as proof of the threat posed by
globalization activists. Even the killing of Carlo Giuliani-- a
protester who was shot in the head, run over and killed by police
after he threw a fire extinguisher at a police vehicle-- is recounted
by U.S. media as a timely "lesson" for activists that, as Time
magazine put it, "You reap what you sow" (7/30/01).
As FAIR documented at the time (FAIR Action Alert, 7/26/01), most U.S.
media responded to the violence with sensationalistic reports on the
drama "in the streets of this gritty port city" (ABC World News
Tonight, 7/20/01), but showed little curiosity about fundamental
questions, such as why Italian forces were armed with live ammunition.
(As for the substantive political concerns motivating the protests,
they were all but ignored).
The July 22 police raid which has become a focus of Italy's
parliamentary inquiry was carried out on the headquarters of the Genoa
Social Forum-- the umbrella group coordinating the protests-- and the
neighboring Independent Media Center (IMC).
It received largely indifferent coverage in the U.S., but reports in
independent and non-U.S. media indicated that some 200 police officers
brutally beat sleeping activists in an attack that led to more than a
dozen of the arrestees being carried out on stretchers, some
unconscious (Guardian, 7/24/01). Of the 93 people arrested at the
school, 72 suffered injuries. All were eventually released without
charge (DPA, 1/8/03).
The coverage of this attack on the nightly newscasts of the U.S.'s
three major broadcast networks was instructive. At first, ABC World
News Tonight did not report the raid at all. CBS Evening News
(7/22/01) mentioned it in passing, with the reporter noting almost
approvingly that "the tactics were heavy-handed, but the streets were
quiet today." Commendably, NBC Nightly News (7/22/01) devoted more
significant attention to the attack and reported organizers' claim
that all the arrestees had been non-violent and were "the latest
victims of police brutality."
A couple of weeks later, it emerged that some of the victims were
American. The three nightly newscasts then showed somewhat more
attention to the issue of police brutality, running reports that
included footage of the blood splashed on the floors and walls of the
school (ABC, 8/8/01; CBS and NBC 8/11/01). CBS distinguished itself
poorly again by introducing its follow-up report with excuses:
"However provoked the Italian police were during the rioting around
last month's summit in Genoa, their behavior has become the subject of
an embarrassing domestic inquiry in Italy."
Embarrassing is one word for it. Amnesty International found a few
others, saying that police at the summit seemed to show "scant
concern" for human rights (The Wire, September 2001). Amnesty
characterized the arrests at the school as illegal and cited reports
that detainees were "slapped, kicked, punched and spat on and
subjected to verbal abuse, sometimes of an obscene sexual nature….
deprived of food, water and sleep for lengthy periods, made to line up
with their faces against the wall and remain for hours spread-eagled,
and beaten if they failed to maintain this position." In addition,
"some were apparently threatened with death and, in the case of female
detainees, rape." Detainees also reported being denied prompt access
to lawyers and medical care.
Discrediting the left
The new admissions from Italian police that they attempted to frame
activists in order to justify their own violence are very significant,
but there was other, earlier evidence of misconduct that reporters
could have followed up.
Much of this evidence was documented by Rory Carroll, a reporter for
the London Guardian newspaper. He reported as early as July 24, 2001
that "an interior ministry source" had admitted that "the raid had
turned into a revenge attack by police." In the same story, Carroll
reported a claim from the Genoa Social Forum that "the homemade bombs
were probably planted."
Another story by Carroll (Guardian, 7/23/01) focused on allegations
that segments of the supposedly anarchist "black block" in Genoa-- the
group most often held up as proof that globalization activists are
violent-- were in fact provocateurs from European security forces.
Groups of black-clad people "burned buildings, ransacked shops and
attacked banks with crowbars and scaffolding" during the protests,
reported Carroll. Some attacked journalists, "smashing their equipment
and tearing up their notebooks." Yet "few, if any" of these people
were arrested, and local activists seemed not to know the people
involved.
The Guardian quoted Francesco Martone, a Green Party senator for
Genoa, alleging that police and neo-fascists "worked together to
infiltrate the genuine protesters" and discredit the left. It also
quoted an Italian communist MP, Luigi Malabarba: "I saw groups of
German and French people dressed as demonstrators in black with iron
bars inside the police station near the Piazza di Kennedy. Draw your
own conclusions."
"Violent protests"
Despite the numerous questions about who instigated most of the
violence in Genoa, "Genoa" has become a kind of shorthand for "violent
protesters" in mainstream media.
For instance, it was common for mainstream news stories to link
activists gathering to protest the June 2002 G8 Summit in Banff,
Canada, to the supposedly dangerous demonstrators of Genoa. The New
York Times (6/27/02) described Canada's extreme security measures as a
response to Genoa, "where violent protesters battled the police." But
what about the violent police? Many outlets simply write them out of
the story.
To continue with the New York Times-- though they're far from the only
outlet at fault-- consider the paper's coverage of a massive November
anti-war march in Florence. Framing the story (11/10/02) with warnings
about government fears of "a reprise of the bloodshed and chaos" of
Genoa, the Times stated that officials were "still haunted by that
melee," and that officials had debated whether to permit
demonstrations at all. With such partial information, a reader might
naturally-- and incorrectly-- assume that most of the violence was
caused by out-of-control protesters.
Just last month (12/15/02), the New York Times ran an article about
the lingering impact of the protests, stating that for over a year,
Italy "has been haunted by the violent clashes between the police and
antiglobalization protesters." It's a reasonable premise, except that
the Times' selective reporting suggested that protesters bear all the
blame. Amazingly, the article noted the prosecutions of 11 people
recently arrested for looting and property damage during the protests,
but failed to mention Italy's ongoing inquiry into police brutality.
In contrast, the inquiry seems to be getting serious attention in
Italy. According to the BBC (1/7/03), newspapers such as La Repubblica
and Il Secolo XIX have been publishing transcripts from the inquiry,
and one report on the television channel Rai Uno stated: "Now that the
investigation into the G8 events is drawing to a close, suspected
truths which had already emerged are being officially confirmed."
Considering how fond U.S. media are of dramatic stories about
protester/police "clashes," they should be able to find the energy to
carefully investigate such incidents. This is crucial journalistic
work; the right to peaceful assembly is central to democracy. The
public deserves to have access to follow-up investigations of what
happened at Genoa's "violent" protests.
----------------
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http://www.fair.org/media-contact-list.html
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