" Suspending reruns of Report to protect a company's brand is a decision that risks being interpreted as if the bombs in front of my house were planted out of love. The consequence of this decision is that what is being suspended is the quality of a team's work, and above all, the memory of important events in this country." This was written by Sigfrido Ranucci in a post published on his Instagram profile following RAI's decision to "precautionarily" suspend the summer reruns of Report.
The move was announced by Rai's In-Depth Division, which explained that it had decided to temporarily suspend reruns "pending full clarification on the delicate and complex matter" involving the journalist, specifying that the measure was adopted "to protect an editorial heritage of great value to the public service." The program's new season, scheduled for this fall, remains confirmed.
Ranucci had already described RAI's decision as "disconcerting" in the past few hours, also saying he was "concerned" that the public company had decided to use "the pretext of shameful, absurd conjectures, spread in the last few hours by some political statements."
The rejection came just hours after a video was posted on Report's social media channels in which Ranucci announced the summer reruns and revealed that the editorial staff was already working on new investigations, inviting the public to submit reports. Fratelli d'Italia then sent an email to the editorial staff asking for further investigation into what it called the "curious friendship" between Ranucci and Valter Lavitola, a convicted felon, Freemason, and fixer, under investigation as the alleged instigator of the attack on the journalist. Lavitola, interviewed by Tg1, continues to deny his involvement. "Ranucci and I," he explains, "would have been fools to carry out the attack ourselves. And I would have been equally foolish to do it as an act of friendship in October and then conduct a poll in June about him as a candidate for the mainstream."
The man also explains the genesis of the project: "In circles within the International and Democratic Socialists, where I've been active all my life, they showed me a survey of potential and current leaders of the left across Europe, including Siegfried. One day I invited him to lunch and told him about it... he told me to go to hell, almost thinking I was joking, so I persisted a bit... end of broadcast! Then I said, 'Listen, you're a jerk, what's it cost you to tell me if this stuff is true... Are you scared?' So I challenged him, and he corrected me on four questions."
Meanwhile, investigators are continuing their investigation to determine the motive for the attack. The home of Gomes Clesio Tavares, a 49-year-old Cameroonian citizen and Lavitola's handyman, has been searched. He is believed to be the intermediary who maintained contact with the Avellino gang that carried out the October 16 bombing.
The Carabinieri went to an apartment in a municipality near Nola where the man, who has reportedly been in Cameroon for months, lives with his partner. The woman was also interviewed at a police station as a person with information on the facts. Investigators believe Gomes is central. "I didn't let him escape, I didn't send him to Cameroon," the former publisher essentially said. "He's often there, and that's evident from his passport." Lavitola himself, however, was ready to leave Italy, still headed for Africa. The suspect had already purchased a plane ticket, and the house search—on the evening of July 4th—was triggered after investigators saw him leave the house with a trolley.
Finally, answers may come from analyzing the devices found in Lavitola's possession and from seven typewritten pages written by the suspect. However, this does not appear to be the question Lavitola had prepared, with the help of two journalists, for the survey regarding Ranucci's possible political candidacy. It is not excluded, however, that investigators may also pursue this investigative lead by interviewing journalists.
(Unioneonline)