Giuseppe "Pippo" Fava (; 15 September 1925 in
Palazzolo Acreide
Palazzolo Acreide ( Sicilian: ''Palazzolu'', in the local dialect: ''Palazzuolu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily (southern Italy). It is from the city of Syracuse in the Hyblean Mountains.
History
The area around ...
– 5 January 1984 in
Catania) was an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
writer, investigative journalist, playwright, and Antimafia activist who was killed by
the Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
. He was the founder of the ''
I Siciliani
Giuseppe "Pippo" Fava (; 15 September 1925 in Palazzolo Acreide – 5 January 1984 in Catania) was an Italian writer, investigative journalist, playwright, and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia. He was the founder of the '' I Sici ...
'', a monthly magazine. His motto in life was "Is there any use in living if you don't have the courage to fight?"
Journalism
Born and raised in
Palazzolo Acreide
Palazzolo Acreide ( Sicilian: ''Palazzolu'', in the local dialect: ''Palazzuolu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily (southern Italy). It is from the city of Syracuse in the Hyblean Mountains.
History
The area around ...
in the
province of Siracusa
The Province of Syracuse ( it, provincia di Siracusa; scn, pruvincia di Sarausa) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital was the city of Syracuse, a town established by Greek colonists arriving from Corinth ...
in Sicily, Fava moved to
Catania to study law.
[Giuseppe Fava]
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 45 (1995) Graduating in 1947, he soon moved to journalism and became a professional journalist in 1952.
[ He became the editor-in-chief of the '' Espresso Sera'' daily newspaper in Catania—the main city on Sicily's east coast—and in 1980, he assumed the same position at '' Il Giornale del Sud'', where he formed a team of young journalists that turned the paper into an independent, investigative journal. At the time, not much was known about the owners, but it became clear that some of them had connections with the Mafia. Fava was fired.
]
''I Siciliani''
In 1983, Fava and his team of independent journalists founded the progressive monthly magazine ''I Siciliani
Giuseppe "Pippo" Fava (; 15 September 1925 in Palazzolo Acreide – 5 January 1984 in Catania) was an Italian writer, investigative journalist, playwright, and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia. He was the founder of the '' I Sici ...
'' ("The Sicilians"). The magazine denounced the connections between Mafia, politics, and business in Catania. Fava also became part of the movement against the deployment of Ground-Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) by NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
at Comiso airport
Comiso Airport "Pio La Torre" , also known as ''Vincenzo Magliocco Airport'', is an airport located in the town of Comiso in the province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. The airport serves Comiso (5 km), Ragusa (15 km/9.3 miles from ...
in June 1983.
However, it was the investigations into the Cosa Nostra
The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily ...
and its tentacles in politics and business—in particular those of Sicily's biggest Catania-based construction firms, owned by the four famous Cavalieri del Lavoro, Carmelo Costanzo, Francesco Finocchiaro, Mario Rendo
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
, and Gaetano Graci (one of the owners of the newspaper that had sacked Fava)—that would determine Fava's fate. Graci went on regular hunting parties with Nitto Santapaola
Benedetto Santapaola (; born 4 June 1938), better known as Nitto, is a prominent mafioso from Catania, the main city and industrial centre on Sicily's east coast. His nickname is ''il cacciatore'' (the hunter), because of his passion for shooting ...
, the undisputed Mafia boss of Catania, who was on the payroll of Costanzo as well. In the first edition of ''I Siciliani'', Fava published the article "I quattro cavalieri dell'apocalisse mafiosa" ("The four horsemen of the Mafia apocalypse"), exposing the corruption and political influence peddling by the four mob bosses that tied together the local Mafia, high finance, and political figures.
Death and aftermath
On 5 January 1984, Fava was killed while he was waiting to pick up his granddaughter, who was rehearsing a part in a theatre comedy. The week before, he had been a guest on Enzo Biagi
Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan.
Life and career
Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpla ...
's national TV show on Rete 4, where he denounced the sway the Mafia held in parliament.
"I mafiosi stanno in Parlamento"
(The mafiosi are in parliament), audio-video registration of Fava last interview with Enzo Biagi on December 28, 1983.
In 1994, Maurizio Avola, a nephew of Santapaola, confessed to killing Fava, and became a pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
. He also confessed to some seventy other murders. Avola said that his uncle Nitto Santapaola
Benedetto Santapaola (; born 4 June 1938), better known as Nitto, is a prominent mafioso from Catania, the main city and industrial centre on Sicily's east coast. His nickname is ''il cacciatore'' (the hunter), because of his passion for shooting ...
had ordered the killing of the journalist, as a favour to the ''cavalieri''. In 1998, Santapaola and Aldo Ercolano were convicted for ordering the killing of Giuseppe Fava. In 2001, the Court of Appeal in Catania confirmed the life sentences of Santapaola and Ercolano and the actual killer, Maurizio Avola, but acquitted Marcello D'Agata, Vincenzo Santapaola, and Franco Giammuso, who had allegedly assisted in the murder. Avola was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. In 2003, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences of Santapaola, Ercolano, and Avola.[25 anni fa l'omicidio di Giuseppe Fava]
, Antimafia Duemila, January 5, 2009
Fava's son, Claudio
Claudio is an Italian and Spanish first name. In Portuguese it is accented Cláudio. In Catalan and Occitan it is Claudi, while in Romanian it is Claudiu.
Origin and history
Claudius was the name of an eminent Roman gens, the most important me ...
, is a Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
for Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
with the Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left ( it, Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy.
The DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger of th ...
(DS).
The volumes ''Process to Sicily'' and ''The Sicilians'' of 1970 and 1978, respectively, collect Giuseppe Fava's most meaningful journalistic inquiries. Among his novels are ''Gente di rispetto'' (1975), ''Prima che vi uccidano'' (1977), and ''Passione di Michele'' (1980).
See also
* List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia
This list of victims of the Sicilian Mafia includes people who have been killed by the Sicilian Mafia while opposing its rule. It does not include people killed in internal conflicts of the Mafia itself.
1890s
1893
*February 1 – Emanuele N ...
* List of journalists killed in Europe
This is a list of journalists killed in Europe (as a continent), divided by country.
While journalists in the European Union (EU) generally work in good conditions, there are cases of murdered journalists, and many of them remain unpunished. Thi ...
References
External links
*
I Siciliani online
*
*
* , press reaction to Fava's murder, I Siciliani, April 1984
*
by Riccardo Orioles, Girodivite, 5 April 2006
*
Giuseppe Fava Foundation
*
by Claudio Fava
Claudio Fava (born 15 April 1957) is an Italian politician and writer. He is the Coordinator of the National Secretariat of Sinistra Ecologia Libertà ( Left Ecology Freedom). He was until 2009 Member of the European Parliament for the Italian ...
, article on the occasion of the 25th memorial of the killing.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fava, Giuseppe
20th-century Italian journalists
20th-century Italian male writers
1925 births
1984 deaths
Antimafia
Assassinated Italian journalists
Assassinated activists
Historians of the Sicilian Mafia
Italian magazine editors
Italian magazine founders
Italian male journalists
People from Palazzolo Acreide
People murdered by the Sicilian Mafia