The appeal by Father Alex Zanotelli — which we endorse — calling on those who report the news to break the silence on the tragedies that affect the peoples of Africa every day.
Forgive me for addressing you in this sweltering summer, but it is the growing suffering of the poorest and most marginalised that compels me to do so. As a missionary, I therefore take up the pen — I too belong to your profession — to make their cry heard, a cry that finds ever less space in the Italian mass media.
I find the majority of our media, both print and television, so provincial, so superficial, so comfortably integrated into the global market. I know that the mass media are, unfortunately, in the hands of powerful economic and financial groups, which means each of you has very little opportunity to write what you would like. I am not asking for heroic acts, but simply that you try to let through, every day, a few pieces of news to help the Italian public understand the tragedies that so many peoples are living through.
I appeal to you, journalists, to have the courage to break the wall of silence that weighs above all on Africa. (There are unfortunately few exceptions in this regard!)
For me, the silence on the dramatic situation in South Sudan is unacceptable — the youngest state in Africa, entangled in a terrifying civil war that has already claimed at least three hundred thousand lives and forced millions to flee.
The silence on Sudan is unacceptable — governed by a dictatorial regime waging war against the people of the Kordofan mountains, the Nuba, Africa's martyr people, and against the ethnic groups of Darfur.
The silence on Somalia, mired in civil war for more than thirty years, with millions of internal and external refugees, is unacceptable.
The silence on Eritrea is unacceptable — governed by one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, with hundreds of thousands of young people fleeing towards Europe.
The silence on the Central African Republic, which continues to be torn apart by a civil war that shows no sign of ending, is unacceptable.
The silence on the grave situation in the Sahel region, from Chad to Mali, where powerful jihadist groups could establish themselves as a new caliphate of sub-Saharan Africa, is unacceptable.
The silence on the chaotic situation in Libya — where a free-for-all conflict is under way, caused by that wretched war of ours against Gaddafi — is unacceptable.
The silence on what is happening in the heart of Africa, above all in the Congo, from where our most precious minerals come, is unacceptable.
The silence on thirty million people at risk of famine in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, northern Kenya and around Lake Chad — the worst food crisis in 50 years according to the United Nations (UN) — is unacceptable.
The silence on climate change in Africa, which risks having three quarters of its territory uninhabitable by the end of the century, is unacceptable.
The silence on Italian sales of heavy and light weapons to these countries, which only serve to fuel ever more ferocious wars from which millions of refugees are forced to flee, is unacceptable. (Last year Italy exported arms worth 14 billion euros.)
Without knowing all of this, it is clear that the Italian public cannot understand why so many people are fleeing their lands, risking their lives to reach us. This breeds the paranoia of "invasion", cunningly stoked by xenophobic parties as well.
This forces European governments to attempt to stop migrants coming from the black continent through the Africa Compact — agreements made with African governments to block migrants.
But no one will stop the desperate of history.
This is not an emergency issue but a structural one, inherent to the economic and financial system. The UN already expects around fifty million climate refugees from Africa alone by 2050. And now our politicians cry: "Let's help them in their own homes" — after centuries of plundering them, which we continue to do through an economic policy that benefits our banks and our corporations, from Eni to Finmeccanica.
And so we find ourselves with a Mare Nostrum that has become a Cimiterium Nostrum, where tens of thousands of refugees have drowned, and with them Europe too is sinking as a homeland of rights. In the face of all this, we cannot remain silent. (Will our grandchildren not say about us what we today say about the Nazis?)
This is why I urge you to break this media silence on Africa, pushing your outlets to cover it. To achieve this, would it not be possible for a letter signed by thousands of you to be sent to the RAI supervisory board and to the major national newspapers? And what if the Federazione nazionale stampa italiana (Fnsi) itself were to make this gesture? Could this not be a journalistic Africa Compact, far more useful to the continent than the various treaties signed by governments to block migrants? We cannot remain silent in the face of another shoah unfolding before our eyes. Let us all do our part to break this damned silence on Africa.