Telejato
| Telejato | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | 1989 |
| Owned by | Pino Maniaci |
| Slogan | Una Voce dalla Sicilia ("A Voice from Sicily") |
| Country | Italy |
| Broadcast area | Palermo, Sicily |
| Headquarters | Partinico |
| Website | Telejato.it |
Telejato is a small, local, independent television station based in the town of Partinico, in Sicily, Italy. It is widely known for its anti-Mafia reportage.
The station was founded in 1989 by Alberto Lo Iacono and subsequently sold to the Italian Communist Refoundation Party (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista or PRC) which, in turn, sold it, in 1999, to Pino Maniaci, a Sicilian building contractor and entrepreneur.
At the time of its purchase by Maniaci, the station was ostensibly in a state of "impending financial collapse", due to the debts incurred by its previous management. Moreover, its classification as "community television" carried an advertising limit of three minutes per hour. Maniaci's stated intention was to turn his mostly family-run Telejato into a "miniature, amateur CNN", as he called it, and, therefore, "the world’s longest TV news programme" was born, with a total of two hours of service, from 2:30 pm until 4:30pm.
Gradually, Telejato turned to investigative reportage, first turning its attention to local polluters. The station has been sued "more than 200 times" from Distilleria Bertolino alone, on account of the many reportages carried out by Telejato into alleged pollution by the distillery factory.
The Sicilian Mafia eventually became the station's main subject of reporting.
Telejato's owner and most of the people working there have reported receiving anonymous threats against their lives and their families' well-being, all of which, they claim, come from local Mafia bosses who are upset with the publicity caused by the station's anti-Mafia activity.
In 2007, Telejato's reporting on the unauthorised use of an extended land area by cattle barns that allegedly belonged to local, Mafia-affiliated families and had been operating there for more than twenty years, led to renewed threats. Pino's daughter, Letizia, hung placards outside the stables, reading "Stables of shame." The next day, Pino Maniaci was allegedly beaten by two unknown teenagers in the street and taken to hospital. After receiving first aid assistance, Maniaci left the hospital and, with bruises and cuts visible on his face, went on the air to denounce from Telejato, once more, the ostensibly Maffia-run cattle business. Soon after, the Italian carabinieri, in a combined anti-Mafia operation, closed down the illegal barns in the area.
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Wikipedia