September 18th, 2013: Paolo G. Parovel, director of “La Voce di Trieste” has sent us this analysis. This is an unofficial translation. Original Italian version: LINK
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Urgent request for clarification about the UNRIC’s political involvement in disputes regarding the legal status of Trieste and its port.
[Links and unofficial translation: SV]
With our analyses, we have already proved that the abnormal responses of the nationalistic political-institutional Triestine establishment regarding the question of the international legal status of the city and of its port mostly rely on falsifying laws and spreading misinformation on local newspaper “Il Piccolo”.
Ultimately, this forces “La Voce di Trieste” to over-work and publish new analyses, and its readers to be over-patient and read them.
On September 17th, 2013, the aforementioned establishment and newspaper, panicking at the sight of the popular demonstration in the name of independence held on September 15th (the anniversary of the 1947 proclamation of the Free State of Trieste) and attended by 6-7000 people, most of whom were youth, reacted as usual.
“Il Piccolo” published the Prefect’s threatening statements, as well as other delegitimizing declarations, attributed to an Italian officer of the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC).
This is a new abnormal fact, and we must immediately provide a commentary for it, also in view of our next issue (September 21st).
However, we know our local colleagues, and how reckless their disinformation can be, we know the authors of both articles, and their different competences. The Prefect’s statements sound at least incautious, and UN officers’ guidelines forbid them to issue such statements.
This is why we asked both sources to confirm them, addressing the Prefect and the UNRIC Directorate, as well as the central offices of the UN Department of Public Information and, for information, other appropriate international actors.
For the sake of clarity, follows [a translation of] the email addressed to the two UN bodies, which includes references to the communication addressed to the Prefect (which we are leaving confidential on grounds of courtesy).
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Subject: urgent request for clarifications regarding today’s (9.17th) political involvement of the UNRIC in disputes regarding the legal status of Trieste and of its international Free Port.
For the attention of Director Mr. Afsané Bassir-Pour and of Deputy Director Mr. Jan Fischer
I am Paolo G. Parovel, director of in-print and digital investigative newspaper “La Voce di Trieste”.
I am faced with professional embarrassment: I have a September 18th deadline to release a rather critical analysis of declarations that local press, in Trieste, attributed to an Italian officer of yours, because at the moment there is no way to know if these were either very editorialized or outright invented by the journalist, and thus require a retraction, or if they constitute an actual breach of codes of conduct for UN officers.
This is why I kindly ask you an urgent clarification on the matter.
The subject revolves a complaint and notice of default (annex 1) addressed in June and July 2013 to the UN, to the Italian Government, and to other international actors, both States and organizations by the organization of citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste – FTT called “Movimento Trieste Libera” (Free Trieste Movement – FTM).
Indeed, the notice is addressed first and foremost to the Italian Government, in its role of remaining administering authority of the FTT under and international trusteeship mandate, and to the UN (Security Council, UNGA, Trusteeship Council) for its role of protector of the legal status of the FTT and of its international Free Port.
The complaint disputes that the Italian Government committed breaches of the international trusteeship mandate allowing the Italian State, a third Country, to simulate and harmfully exercise its sovereignty over the FTT, which is a UN Member State de jure.
This means we are talking about a question based in law, which involves directly all complaining citizens, the Italian Government, the Italian Republic, and the UN, therefore it needs to be treated in accordance with the suitable legal procedures and respecting the complainants’ free and democratic exercise of their political rights.
Instead, the local representatives of Italian politics are reacting to the complaint with a coordinated, increasing action of anti-legal measures that deny the very rights in question, as well as with misleading and threatening aggressions against the directors, members, and supporters of the FTM, all to repress the democratic protest. Those repressive actions are further encouraged and supported also by nationalistic and neofascist organizations.
The main platform of this misleading and threatening campaign is local monopolistic Italian-language newspaper “Il Piccolo” and it appears to follow the guidelines of a professional, likely not journalistic disinformati center.
As part of this political campaign, today, September 17th [2013] that newspaper published with much relevance the article (annex 2) referring, commenting, and using for its own ends statements it attributes to your Italian Desk Officer Fabio Graziosi, as if he had officially released them to the newspaper in the UNRIC’s name, therefore in the UN’s name, thus involving them in the open political dispute with the Italian authorities, and on their side.
I avoid commenting the rather embarrassing remarks attributed to Your officer, however, I observe that they do not appear to be based on the merit of the question, which is outside of his competences in the first place, rather, they derive from false or deceptive information crafted and released by “Il Piccolo” itself.
Information which the alleged source would have therefore directly accredited without prior verification, and provided by secondary, politically contaminated sources, or other unreliable ones.
Indeed, the statements that the FTM illegally uses the UN emblem as its own is false; instead, it uses it together with own emblems, as a visual call-back to the UN’s own specific role of international guarantor of the rights reclaimed. It is equally false that the FTM claims the UN is the competent authority when it comes to prosecuting Italian magistrates who rule, against the law, that the FTT lacks legal existence.
I’d like to bring to Your attention that, for the same reasons, the same issue of “Il Piccolo” accompanies this article, which involves the UN in the most certainly improper terms, also another article (annex 3), which involves, again improperly, the Italian Government and State.
Indeed, the newspaper uses for the same purpose claims that are at least careless, attributes them to the Italian Prefect in Trieste, and presents them to the readers so they appear as both threats of the very Italian State against the FTM’s members and supporters and as supporting, in the guise of an unconstitutional political interference, the prevalence of the executive on the judiciary for that to continue denying the aforementioned rights with measures that go against the law.
I must inform you that, in view of this, I had to address also the Prefect, asking if she truly released those claims as a representative of the Italian Government and of the Italian State, or these were redacted statements that require a retraction.
Additionally, we need to inform You that those two coordinated articles aiming at an intimidatory involvement of the image of the UN and of the Italian State against the FTM come right after a peaceful, popular demonstration of thousand of Triestines (see the photo at annex 4) held on September 15th on the anniversary of the proclamation of the FTT as independent sovereign State by its provisional Government, which at the time was entrusted to a dedicate body of the Military Allied Forces.
I should be obliged if you would answer my urgent request for clarifications.
Best regards,
Paolo G. Parovel,
investigative journalist
director of La Voce di Trieste
