 | |
| Country | Italy |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Palermo, Sicily |
| Headquarters | Partinico |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Pino Maniaci |
| History | |
| Launched | 1989 |
| Links | |
| Website | Telejato.it |
Telejato is an independent television station based in the town of Partinico, in Sicily, Italy, and managed by Pino Maniaci, broadcasting since 1989. It became widely known for its anti-Mafia reporting.
The station was founded in 1989 by Alberto Lo Iacono [1] and subsequently sold to the Italian Communist Refoundation Party (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista or PRC) which, in turn, sold it, in 1999, to Giuseppe "Pino" Maniaci, a Sicilian building-contractor and entrepreneur. [2]
At the time of its purchase by Maniaci, the station was ostensibly in a state of "impending financial collapse", due to the debts incurred by its previous management. [3] Moreover, its classification as "community television" carried an advertising limit of three minutes per hour. Maniaci's stated intention was to turn his mostly family-run Telejato into a "miniature, amateur CNN", as he called it, and, therefore, "the world’s longest TV news programme" [3] was born, with a total of two hours of service, from 2:30 pm until 4:30pm.
Gradually, Telejato turned to investigative reportage, first turning its attention to local polluters. [3] The station has been sued "more than 200 times" from Distilleria Bertolino alone, on account of the many reportages carried out by Telejato into alleged pollution by the distillery factory. [3]
The Sicilian Mafia eventually became the station's main subject of reporting.
Telejato's signal covered the provinces of Palermo and Trapani, with an approximate target viewership of 150,000 people. [3]
On 28 April 2021, Pino Maniaci announces that the Telejato's signal covers all provinces of Sicily. [4]
Telejato's owner and most of the people working there have reported receiving anonymous threats against their lives and their families' well-being, all of which, they claim, come from local Mafia bosses who are upset with the publicity caused by the station's anti-Mafia activity.
In 2007, Telejato's reporting on the unauthorised use of an extended land area by cattle barns that allegedly belonged to local, Mafia-affiliated families and had been operating there for more than twenty years, led to renewed threats. Pino's daughter, Letizia, hung placards outside the stables, reading "Stables of shame." [5] The next day, Pino Maniaci was allegedly beaten by two unknown teenagers in the street and taken to hospital. After receiving first aid assistance, Maniaci left the hospital and, with bruises and cuts visible on his face, went on the air to denounce from Telejato, once more, the ostensibly Maffia-run cattle business. [5] Soon after, the Italian carabinieri , in a combined anti-Mafia operation, closed down the illegal barns in the area. [5]
In July 2008, Pino Maniaci's car, parked outside his home, was "doused with gasoline" and set on fire. [6] This episode is part of what Maniaci says is a constant process of threats, manifesting in "countless attacks", such as slashed tyres or severed brake cables in the cars he uses and even windscreens shattered by gunshots. [7] Maniaci was subsequently granted police protection. [3]
The website of Telejato has often been blocked or rendered inaccessible to web search engines, allegedly as a result of Mafia-ordered hacking. [1]
In September 2011, many abusive and threatening graffiti messages appeared on the walls of the town of Partinico, such as "You've ruined this country!" and "The ruling has been issued", ostensibly directed against Maniaci. [8] The federation of Italian journalists and the Sicilian federation of journalists expressed their solidarity with Telejato. [8]
In December 2014, Maniaci found the two dogs he kept at home hung from a post near the station's studio. [9] Maniaci linked the incident to Telejato's coverage of drug use in the area. "The city is awash with cocaine, and we have been going very hard on that," he stated to the press. "Cosa Nostra is always behind things like that." [9]
Letizia Maniaci, Pino's daughter and Telejato's main reporter [7] (Maniaci's son Giovanni also works at the station), [3] has been awarded the Maria Grazia Cutuli journalism award for her work. Letizia Maniaci has written a book about her life, working in Telejato, which was published in Italy by Rizzoli, in March 2009. [10]
In 2009, Pino Maniaci was indicted by Palermo public prosecutor Paoletta Caltabellotta for exercising the journalistic profession "without the necessary state license." [11] The indictment did not reach the courts, as Maniaci was given honoris causa a journalistic license by the Italian federation of journalists. [11]
On 21 April 2016, an article signed by Salvo Vitale on Telejato's Voce della Sicilia webpage alleged that the president of the Court of Auditors Luciana Savagnone got her sports journalist son-in-law hired by the radio station TRM through personal connections. Savagnone sued for libel and in September 2018, Maniaci, Vitale, and Telejato manager Riccardo Orioles were found guilty and sentenced to a fine of a total of 15,000 Euros. [12]
In April 2016, Salvo Lo Biundo and Gioacchino De Luca, the mayors of Partinico and Borgetto respectively, submitted a complaint against Maniaci, accusing him of demanding bribes so that Telejato "would go easy on them." Maniaci denied the charges, stating that the mayors were among those Telejato was almost daily reporting for incompetence. An investigation was opened by the office of the Palermo public prosecutor Nino Di Matteo. [13]
In May 2016, Palermo Deputy Prosecutor Vittorio Teresi detailed the accusations against Maniaci in a news conference where he attacked the journalist's status as "a champion of anti-corruption," stating: "The fight against the Mafia is done without personal interests. We do not need the anti-Mafia services of Mr. Pino Maniaci." Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi also appeared before the media, claiming Maniaci "has repeatedly shown a total disregard for established authority, the police and the judiciary." The Palermo authorities banned Maniaci away from Partinico, arguing he was "using his television show for leverage." [14]
On 4 April 2017, Maniaci announced with an online message that Telejato would close down, using the phrase, "Chi ci ama ci scusi. È stato bello." ("Those who love us, please forgive us. It's been nice.") Maniaci stated that it had become impossible to carry on because the "mud machine operated by the Carabinieri and the Palermo prosecutor's office had caused devastating damages, much more serious than the damage done to the station by the mafiosi who intimidate local businesses away from advertising on Telejato." [15]
The next day, Maniaci announced that he wanted to keep the station going. [16]
On 28 March 2018, the station's chief editor, Francesco Buzzotta, was killed in a head-on collision of his car with a truck on the provincial road between Partinico and Grisì. [17]
The trial date was set for 19 July 2017, the anniversary of the 1992 Via D'Amelio bombing in which anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino and five members of his police escort were assassinated. [18] Eleven defendants were named, variously charged with mafia association, extortion and real estate fraud, including Maniaci who was charged with extortion. [18]
On the opening day of the trial, the judge Benedetto Giaimo declared that no sound- or image-recording devices would be allowed in the court room, because, as he stated, "the trial holds no social interest," and postponed the trial for 20 September 2017. [19] On that date, the judge reversed his decision and allowed cameras in the court room. [20] On 20 November 2017, the trial began, but judge Mauro Terranova, on account of some defendants not having been properly summoned, postponed commencement for 8 January 2018, [21] then for 25 January, and again for 5 March. [22]
On 8 April 2021, Palermo judge Mauro Terranova acquitted Maniaci of the charge for extortion. He sentenced Maniaci to 1 year and 5 months of prison time for defamation of journalist Michele Giuliano, painter Gaetano Porcasi, Nunzio Quatrosi, and Elisabetta Liparoto. Maniaci's lawyer stated they will appeal the guilty verdict for defamation. [23]
In 2015, in "The Mafia Hunter" episode of Channel 4's Unreported World , Krishnan Guru-Murthy and director Paul Kittel traveled to Sicily to meet Maniaci and the group of volunteers who run Telejato. [24] In 2021, Netflix released a documentary series about the station, titled Vendetta: Truth, Lies and the Mafia. [25]
Bernardo Provenzano was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and de facto the boss of bosses. His nickname was Binnu u tratturi because, in the words of one informant, "he mows people down." Another nickname was il ragioniere due to his apparently subtle and low-key approach to running his crime empire, at least in contrast to some of his more violent predecessors.
Rocco Chinnici was a noted Italian anti-Mafia magistrate killed by the Sicilian Mafia.
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 to 30 January 1992, and was held in a bunker-style courthouse specially constructed for this purpose inside the walls of the Ucciardone prison.
Leoluca Bagarella is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone. Following Salvatore Riina's arrest in early 1993, Bagarella became the head of the stragist strategy faction, opposing another faction commanded by the successor designate Bernardo Provenzano, creating a real rift in Cosa Nostra. Bagarella was captured in 1995, having been a fugitive for four years, and sentenced to life imprisonment for Mafia association and multiple murders.
Partinico is a city and comune in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Palermo and 71 kilometres (44 mi) from Trapani.
Salvatore Lo Piccolo, also known as "the Baron", is a Sicilian mafioso and one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo, Sicily. Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia throughout the 1980s and he became the capomandamento of the San Lorenzo district in the early 1990s, replacing Salvatore Biondino, who was sent to prison. Lo Piccolo was a fugitive since 1983 and had been running his Mafia affairs in hiding. With the capture of Bernardo Provenzano on 11 April 2006, Lo Piccolo had been cementing his power and rise to the top of the Palermo Mafia until his own arrest on 5 November 2007. It is believed that his family spread across Europe due to rising tensions, settling in England, Portugal, and southern Spain.
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It is composed of representatives of a mandamento that are called capo mandamento or rappresentante. The Commission is not a central government of the Mafia, but a representative mechanism for consultation of independent Mafia families who decide by consensus. "Contrary to the wide-spread image presented by the media, these superordinate bodies of coordination cannot be compared with the executive boards of major legal firms. Their power is intentionally limited [and] it would be entirely wrong to see in the Cosa Nostra a centrally managed, internationally active Mafia holding company," according to criminologist Letizia Paoli.
The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella.
Domenico "Mimmo" Raccuglia, nicknamed 'u vitirinariu, is a member of the Mafia in Sicily. He was a fugitive and included on Italy's most wanted list since 1996, until his capture on November 15, 2009, near Trapani.
Antonino Geraci, better known as Nenè or il vecchio, was the historical boss of the Mafia in Partinico, in the Metropolitan City of Palermo. Geraci sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission since the mid-1970s and belonged to the hard line faction allied with the Corleonesi of Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. According to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, Geraci took care of the fugitive Riina while he stayed in Partinico.
Antonino "Nino" Rotolo is a Sicilian Mafia boss from the Pagliarelli area in Palermo that traditionally was under the control of the Motisi Mafia family. Rotolo was the underboss of Matteo Motisi, but according to some pentiti he was the de facto leader representing the mandamento on the Sicilian Mafia Commission. In 2006, the police deduced that Rotolo — Number 25 in the numbered code of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano — had become a key figure in Cosa Nostra's hierarchy.
Francesco Madonia was the Mafia boss of the San Lorenzo-Pallavicino area in Palermo. In 1978 he became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
Salvatore "Vito" Vitale, also known as Fardazza, is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. For a while he was considered the heir of Totò Riina and was closely connected to Leoluca Bagarella.
Pietro Tagliavia is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age, he is considered to be one of the upcoming leading Mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo.
Raffaele Ganci was a member of the Mafia in Sicily from the Noce neighbourhood in Palermo. He was considered to be the right-hand man of Cosa Nostra boss Totò Riina and sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
Salvatore Riina, called Totò 'u Curtu, was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva and il capo dei capi.
The via D'Amelio bombing was a terrorist attack by the Sicilian Mafia, which took place in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, on 19 July 1992. It killed Paolo Borsellino, the anti-mafia Italian magistrate, and five members of his police escort: Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina, and Claudio Traina.
The term State-Mafia Pact defines the negotiation between important Italian functionaries and Cosa Nostra members, that began after the period of the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia with the aim to reach a deal and so to stop the attacks. In summary, the supposed cornerstone of the deal was the end of the so-called "massacres season" in return for detention measures attenuation expected by Italian article 41-bis, thanks to which Antimafia pool led by Giovanni Falcone condemned hundreds of mafia members to the so-called "hard prison regime". The negotiation hypothesis has been the subject of long judicial investigations—not yet concluded—and some journalistic investigations.
The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be is a 2019 Italian satirical documentary film directed by Franco Maresco. It is intended as a follow-up to Belluscone: A Sicilian Story (2014). It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. At the Venice Film Festival, the film won the Special Jury Prize.