"Let’s not silence the condemnation of institutional violence."

 The PsyCom - Protocollo Napoli association supports the fundraising campaign for journalist Silvia Mari De Santis, who was ordered in the first instance to pay damages and legal costs (as per the decree in the journalist’s possession) for having led the ‘Mamme coraggio’ investigation into primary violence and secondary victimisation in the courts.

The 'Mamme coraggio' investigation gave a voice to women who are victims of institutional violence and scrutinised the course of criminal and civil proceedings, the work of court-appointed experts, the failure to hear the child’s testimony, and the use of the discredited theory of parental alienation – a tool, as the United Nations states, for failing to investigate violence against women and children. The phenomenon of secondary (institutional) victimisation was recognised in the final report, passed unanimously, of the 18th Parliament’s Commission of Inquiry into Femicide, which reviewed the work of the DIRE on the phenomenon and examined hundreds of cases. The journalist’s work has prompted numerous parliamentary questions and generated a wide institutional response.

We invite associations, trade unions, MPs, and citizens to join us in supporting this professional, who is currently facing legal proceedings (over two high-profile cases of institutional violence against two mothers) and has also been summoned by the disciplinary committee of her professional association following a complaint lodged by the ‘Men Victims of Violence’ League, an organisation which, along with others, denies the gendered nature of male violence against women. The journalist is personally paying the price for her work in exposing and bearing witness to these issues; work that must continue at Dire, as in all other media outlets, without fear of intimidation or reprisals, because we women will always stand alongside those who dedicate themselves to combating male violence and institutional violence

“A journalist without enemies, who causes no trouble, who does not live amidst trouble, is very rarely a good journalist.” Oriana Fallaci.

#IostoconSilvia