ROME (AP) — An explosive device went off under the car of a prominent Italian investigative journalist parked outside his home, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and others on Friday. No one was injured.
The overnight explosion destroyed Sigfredo Ranucci’s car and damaged a second family car and the house next to it in Pomezia, south of Rome, said the report, an investigative series broadcast by Italy’s state-run RAI3 channel. She added that the explosion was so powerful that it could have killed anyone passing by.
Police, firefighters and forensic crews are investigating the matter, the report said.
Meloni expressed her solidarity with Ranucci, the main presenter of the Report program, and condemned what she described as “the serious act of intimidation he was subjected to.”
“Freedom and independence of information are fundamental values of our democracies, and we will continue to defend them,” she said in a statement.
The report is one of the few investigative programs broadcast on Italian television and regularly publishes news related to prominent Italian politicians, business leaders and public figures. Just this week, Ranucci was acquitted of the latest defamation case he faced over one of the report’s stories.