The investigative journalist Nello Scavo at USI

For the "International Day of the imprisoned writer", USI Institute of Public Communication, the P.E.N. Swiss Italian and Reto-Romansh Centre and Reporters Without Borders Switzerland, propose an online conference featuring Nello Scavo, journalist of Avvenire under protection for his investigations on documenting what is happening on the migrants' routes.

With several important accolades, Nello Scavo is the author of many journalistic scoops on rejections off the European coasts and on the relations between governments (mostly Italian and Maltese) and the Libyan Coast Guard, as well as on the presence of men linked to human trafficking. In its analysis, Scavo highlights the collaboration of the States that finance these "perverse mechanisms", documented in numerous UN reports and the fear that Europe has of migratory flows.

For years, Scavo has been at the forefront in reporting organised crime and terrorism and has been under protection since October 2019 due to the international repercussions of the investigation that unveiled the negotiations between Italian authorities and oil, arms and human traffickers in Libya. He speaks about this investigation and much more in the conference published today, Monday, 14 December on USI's YouTube channel [link], in Italian with English subtitles.

Professor of Communication, Culture and Society Jean-Patrick Villeneuve, among the promoters of the initiative, underlines that "The work of Nello Scavo shows the human and professional costs, but also the fundamental necessity, to confront, here in Europe, the scourge of human right abuses”. The Director of USI Institute of Public Communication concludes: “The university has a fundamental role in studying human right abuses and corruption, and working with associations such as PEN and RSF, to underline the importance and impacts of these dynamics on individuals and on our democratic systems”.

Below is the video of the in-depth analysis aired at RSI, recorded on the day of the conference in the Aula Magna of the Lugano campus.