Living on the Mafia hit list - a journalist's tale

By Stephen Brown

ROME (Reuters) - Lirio Abbate has an unwelcome distinction among Italian journalists: correspondent in Sicily for the state news agency Ansa and La Stampa newspaper, he has had his own armed police escort for the past six months.

When anti-Mafia investigators using wiretaps heard mobsters discussing how to silence 37-year-old Abbate in revenge for his news reports and book about their illegal activities, police decided to give him and his wife a police escort.

Last month two men were disturbed while trying to put a bomb under his car in Palermo. A few days ago, wiretaps on a jailed Mafia godfather relayed fresh talk about how to silence pesky Sicilian journalists, in particular Ansa's newsroom in Palermo.

A married father of two, Abbate has decided to remain in his native Sicily despite figuring prominently on the Mafia hit list.

"If I left after they put a bomb under my car, I would be setting a bad example to other Sicilians," he told Reuters on a visit to Rome, accompanied by his police escort.

"This way I am showing that I am not afraid, that the state is protecting me, and that I will carry on."

At least a dozen journalists in Italy live under threat from organized crime -- in Sicily, in Naples where the Camorra holds sway and in Calabria, home to the powerful 'Ndrangheta.

Neapolitan author Roberto Saviano, who wrote the best-seller "Gomorra" about the Camorra, also lives with an armed police bodyguard after receiving threats.