A car belonging to a prominent Italian investigative journalist exploded outside his home overnight, prompting an investigation by Italian anti-mafia authorities and an indictment on Friday from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and others. No one was injured.
The explosion late Thursday targeting Sigfredo Ranucci, the main anchor of state-run RAI3’s investigative series, occurred on the eighth anniversary of the car bomb assassination of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
“The force of the explosion was so powerful that it could have killed anyone passing by at that moment,” the report said in a report. Statement on X.
Ranucci had just returned home at the time, and his daughter had passed by half an hour earlier, Report said in a statement. The explosion destroyed the car and damaged another family car next to it, as well as the front gate of Ranucci’s house in Pomezia, south of Rome.
The report stated that police, firefighters and forensic teams arrived at the scene, and judges from the anti-mafia police in the Rome area are investigating. The video was shot by RanucciHe, who has been under police protection since 2021 due to his strict investigations, showed the remains of the cars and the mutilated gate.
Siegfriedo Ranucci/AFP
Meloni expressed her solidarity with Ranucci and condemned what she described as a “serious act of intimidation to which he was subjected.”
“Freedom and independence of information are fundamental values of our democracies, and we will continue to defend them,” she said in a speech. Statement posted on social media.
Speaking to reporters outside the RAI offices, Ranucci said the explosion was an “escalation” of what he said were two years of threats believed to be linked to the report’s investigations into links between Cosa Nostra, “Ndrangheta.” far-right crime groups and prominent former mafia hits.
In response to a question about whether the explosion would have a horrific impact on the work of the report, he said that his colleagues were accustomed to working under difficult conditions.
“Anyone who thinks they can adapt the work of the report by doing something like this will have the opposite effect,” he said. “The only thing this does is maybe make us waste some time.”
Unions of Italian journalists, politicians and others also expressed their solidarity.
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. Ranucci has been sued several times for defamation, and just this week, he was acquitted in the latest case he faced.
The explosion occurred on the eighth anniversary of the killing, October 16, 2017 Daphne Caruana Galiziawho has written extensively about suspected corruption in Malta’s political and business circles. Like Ranucci, she has faced dozens of defamation lawsuits aimed at silencing her reporting. Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year after being found guilty of complicity in the murder. Two other people pleaded guilty in 2022 to carrying out the murder and were sentenced to 40 years in prison.
“He ordered you killed”
The report is known for its in-depth investigative reporting and Ranucci has also written a book on the mafia.
On a TV show in 2021, he described how a former prisoner told him that gangsters had “given the order to kill you” after his book was published, but the hit had “stopped”.
Ranucci told the Corriere newspaper that he had also received various threats recently, including two bullets being found outside his house.
On Sunday, he revealed the highlights of an upcoming series of reports on social media, including investigative reports on Calabria’s powerful ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group and the Sicilian Mafia.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Italy ranks 49th in the world in terms of press freedom.
Pavol Szalai, Europe director of Reporters Without Borders, told AFP that this was “the most serious attack against an Italian reporter in recent years.”
Salai added, “Freedom of the press itself faces an existential threat in Italy.”
The group warned in its latest update that journalists investigating organized crime and corruption are “systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence.”
She added that about 20 journalists are currently living under permanent police protection after being subjected to intimidation and attacks.
The most famous journalist is Roberto Saviano, best known for his best-selling book about the international mafia “Gomorra”.
Saviano linked the attack on Ranucci to the political climate in Italy, where journalists are seen as legitimate “targets.”
The Italian Federation of Journalists (FNSI) said earlier this week that 81 journalists had been victims of acts of intimidation, including 16 cases of physical assault, in the first half of 2025, Reuters news agency reported.
Alessandra Costanti, Secretary General of the Italian National Football Federation, said: “The attack on Sigfredo Ranucci sets the clock of democracy in Italy back decades.” He said in a statement Friday.