Assaulted and kidnapped with her crew and then detained for hours by the police. This is what happened to the Rai correspondent Lucia Goracci during a report on no vax in Romania.
A case that has created a real diplomatic incident.
The RAI leaders defined the incident as an "unjustifiable and unfortunate detention by a friendly country and member of the EU" and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also intervened asking for immediate "clarification" from the Bucharest government. also by the Usigrai union and by many politicians from different parties.
The Romanian government, in a statement, strongly condemned “any act of intimidation of journalists or obstruction of citizens' right to free information. Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă - adds the Bucharest communiqué - considers this incident unacceptable and strongly disapproves of the manifestation of differences of opinion through violence. The case - continues the note - raises concern and must be urgently clarified by the competent State institutions ".
For its part, the RAI correspondent said she was kidnapped in the office of the Romanian novax senator she was interviewing. "She closed the door several times, preventing us from going out - said the Tg1 correspondent -. More men then appeared, including her husband. They did not let us out and she called 112, saying that we had done broke in and we were threatening them. In short, they started criminalizing us. "
Goracci then explained that the senator "told the police that we could have weapons or drugs on us. They threatened us. Her husband also said: what do I do with you now? I open the window and throw you down?".
The reporter then managed to get out, taking advantage of a moment when someone entered. "When I entered again with the police, that I had the illusion he was going up to defend us - he continued -, the agents began to make us the fourth degree. The senator's husband got his hands on us and the policeman then brought us away, in a crescendo of grotesque ".
Then the bitter comment: “I didn't think it would happen in a country like Romania. In the video we see that at a certain point I say: we are not in Syria! ".
