FIRST PRESS RELEASE

Introduction First of all, we would like to express our gratitude to the Protection Hub for the support we received. We would also like to thank everyone for the many messages of solidarity we received, despite the limited information available about our detention on Saturday, 31 January, and reaffirm our solidarity with all those detained and involved in the events in Turin. We are writing this statement to explain why we were unable to cover the national demonstration in Turin in solidarity with the Askatasuna social centre and against its eviction. Before addressing what happened, however, we believe it is necessary to make one thing clear: we are not journalists. Neither freelance journalists registered as pubblicisti, nor professional journalists. And we want to be clear: this is not for lack of willingness — notwithstanding our understandable repulsion towards certain media outlets and certain members of this profession — but because of the structurally inaccessible and class-based nature of the profession itself. The path to becoming a journalist in Italy is long, rigidly regulated and highly selective by design, both for pubblicisti and professional journalists. Access does not depend on competence, the quality of one’s work or the social function performed by journalism, but on the material ability to endure prolonged precarity and exploitation through self-financing. It is a mechanism of class selection that, for people in their early twenties from working-class families like ours, is currently unsustainable. We are therefore not a registered news outlet: we do not have a legally responsible editor registered with the professional journalists’ association. Nor are we yet a formally recognised association. We are a small group of people investing our own time, energy and resources — alongside study, work and everyday life — in something intended to serve everyone, with the aim of building a media infrastructure for counter-narratives that is free from the economic interests of a handful of extremely wealthy individuals. We conclude this introduction by clarifying that, in the events described below, we therefore benefited from none of the protections associated with journalistic status. In this case, we were granted neither the symbolic protection nor the legal safeguards attached to the profession. We were treated as ordinary people, all of us with no criminal record. What happened? On the morning of 31 January 2026, one of our reporters travelled by car to Turin with four other people to document the demonstration in solidarity with the Askatasuna Social Centre. Our reporter was carrying a camera, an action camera, a bicycle helmet, a gas mask, protective goggles and nine sachets of Maalox — a kit commonly used in situations where the use of CS gas by law enforcement is expected. The others were carrying swimming goggles and FFP3 masks exclusively for protection against irritant gases. After passing the Rondissone motorway toll booth, at around 10:00, the car was stopped at a roadside area by traffic police for what was described as a “routine police check”, during which we were not asked to leave the vehicle. Two plain-clothes DIGOS officers subsequently arrived and photographed the faces of the people inside the car, presumably forwarding the images to the next checkpoint. At around 11:00, the vehicle was stopped a second time in the Turin Stura area, near the so-called “Sphinx”. This time, we were ordered to get out of the car and open our backpacks. The bicycle helmet, gas mask, protective goggles and Maalox were set aside. Attempts to explain the journalistic purpose of our presence and to show the photographic and video equipment used for documentation proved unsuccessful. Throughout these procedures, we repeatedly asked why we were being detained and searched, receiving only the response that “we would see it later in the paperwork”. DIGOS officers intervened again and took further photographs of our faces with mobile phones, claiming that the photographs on our identity documents were outdated. At 11:30, we were told that we would be “taken” to police headquarters for a few dozen minutes. Four of the five people were placed in a police van, while the fifth remained in the car with officers on board. After approximately half an hour, at 12:00, we arrived at a branch of the Turin Police Headquarters at Via Tirreno 337. Before being taken to a cell, we were able to contact the Protection Hub number circulated by the movement. They put us in touch with a lawyer and advised us on how to proceed in order to speed up the procedures. Only after arriving at police headquarters were we told that our detention was due to the violation of an unspecified order issued by the Prefecture, which we still cannot find officially published on the Prefecture’s website except through a generic article amended on 2 February. After individual searches, we were locked together in an eight-person cell already occupied by three other people, in severely degraded and seriously unhygienic conditions. Shortly afterwards, another two people were placed in the cell, bringing the total to ten. Over the following hours, we were taken out of the cell one at a time for periods ranging from fifteen to thirty minutes to undergo various procedures: first to provide our personal details, then to be transferred to the forensic police, where mugshots and photographs of our tattoos were taken, as well as our fingerprints. All of this happened because we were carrying personal protective equipment such as swimming goggles and masks and, in the case of our reporter, what was demonstrated to be a standard kit used to document highly confrontational situations of this kind. Throughout the detention, we were given no formal explanation for the measure, nor were we allowed to contact our lawyer, despite numerous requests made during the nine hours we were held. Meanwhile, thanks to the intervention of the Protection Hub, friends and relatives were informed that we were being held at police headquarters, although they were given contradictory release times: first 18:00, then 20:00. We were released only at 21:30, after nine and a half hours of detention. Upon release, in addition to confirmation that the protective equipment had been seized, our reporter was accused of violating Article 650 of the Italian Criminal Code. According to the Prefect, “on the basis of factual elements”, he was allegedly “engaged in the commission of offences that endanger public safety and public order”, despite having no criminal record. As a preventive measure, a two-year foglio di via , barring him from Turin, was imposed. We reiterate that this measure was imposed despite no conduct having taken place during the demonstration, which we had been prevented from attending in the first place. What now? We are already in contact with lawyers to assess the legal procedures that may be pursued to protect the collective and the people involved. This incident has highlighted a number of critical issues within the collective concerning our organisation and the way we deal with situations of pressure and conflict. We need to take the time to analyse what happened, reorganise certain aspects of our work and better define our tools and responsibilities. This process will take time, and we therefore ask those who follow us for patience. Our objective remains to continue producing independent information and counter-narratives, without bosses and without external constraints, even within the material limitations we face every day. Finally, we believe it is necessary to alert the entire movement. The increasingly repressive rhetoric adopted by institutions and by parties across the entire parliamentary spectrum, including the “opposition”, points to a willingness to escalate the confrontation on both the political and communications fronts. In this context, it becomes essential to assess the timing, forms and methods of initiatives with greater care, in order to avoid falling into provocations that benefit those seeking to criminalise and isolate organisations and groups based on solidarity. When the decision is made to act, it must be done firmly, but also with clarity and precision, taking the real balance of forces into account. To everyone who wishes to support or help the collective, we ask you to stay in touch and continue following us: in the coming months, we will need the support of the entire community that believes in this project.