Alarmed at the mistreatment of immigrants in Italian detention centres in Lampedusa, and the ineffective and unbalanced coverage in the mainstream media, journalist and academic Maria Teresa Sette questions why the unjustified criminalisation of migrants remains largely unchallenged in Italian society.
Lampedusa is a tiny island off the Italian coast. It is also one of the main gateways to Europe for African migrants. Over the past two decades not has it become a metaphor for the failure of the EU to guarantee the right to international protection for asylum seekers, but it is a stage on which a wide section of the Italian mainstream media performs its show of hypocrisy and misinformation over migration.
The most recent show of sensationalism took place during the scandal involving the
A wave of indignation swept through public and political circles, reaching Europe where the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström threatened to impose
For nearly three weeks, amid words of astonishment at the appalling images, news emerged of protests in other immigration detention centres in Italy. Meanwhile politicians playing the usual blame game dominated the headlines of the major national newspapers and TV news bulletins.
Amid all this activity the media behaved as if it was clueless about the inhumane treatment against immigrants in detention and removal facilities across the country. Mainstream journalists also seemed unaware of the repeated violations of fundamental human rights in Lampedusa and other immigration camps in Italy, which have been denounced by UNHCR, human rights groups and independent journalists for years. They were also oblivious to the protests, worrying cases of suicide, and strange ‘incidents’ happening to immigrant detainees, often covered up by the opaque bureaucracy of the detention system.
In reality the coverage of migrants’ rights by the mainstream media, particularly TV news channels (which still represent the main source of information for Italian society), is marked by self-censorship, misinformation and, in some cases, opportunistic distortion. The media frenzy which took place on the eve of Christmas 2013 is emblematic of the main migration narrative, swinging between the criminalisation of migrants and the hypocritical sensationalisation of their drama.
Many Italian journalists and independent media outlets have tried to counterbalance the uneven migration debate with more scrupulous reports. But they are up against a general media discourse determined by news, angles, language and graphics which associate immigrants with criminality and cheap labour on the one hand, and as unnamed victims, stripped of their dignity on the other. As in the UK where migrants are regularly scapegoated, particularly by the tabloids, ugly stereotypes are fuelled, building a climate of ignorant racism.
There is no doubt that large sections of the Italian media have been complicit and instrumental to years of cynical, short-sighted and absurd immigration policies which resulted in the so-called “security package” law in 2008. This move turned undocumented migrants into criminals by legally tarnishing them with the same brush as their smugglers.
Is it any wonder that what is happening in Lampedusa reflects a chilling normality in Italy? The horrendous image of people being mistreated like dangerous disease-carrying animals is not a ‘scoop’. Instead it is proof that Italian society has legitimised the idea that keeping immigrants in degrading conditions inside stark detention camps is ok.
Photo credit: UNCHR.com
Maria Teresa Sette is a London-based Italian freelance journalist who writes about European integration, migration, media freedom, and the impact of the digital revolution on social and political equality in Europe. The former news editor of Wired and managing editor of The New Londoners magazine has contributed as a reporter to a range of titles including Corriere della Sera, The Sunday Times, and has been a consultant to various European NGOs active in the field of human and minority rights.