Organized Crime and Coruption Project

Journalists working with OCCRP will participate in the XV Day of Memory and Commitment in Remembrance of Victims of Organised Crime taking place in Turin, Italy on March 20. The event is hosted by Libera, an Italian organization founded to fight organized crime through civic action.

"We are proud to attend this important event and to help represent the small group of journalists around Europe who are tackling this issue on a daily basis," said Drew Sullivan, director of OCCRP. "What Libera has done over the years is truly remarkable."

Also attending will be a number of family members of journalists who died while reporting on organized crime including Jimmy Guerin, the brother of murdered Irish reporter Veronica Guerin, Mirislava  Gongadze, widow of Ukrainian reporter Giorgey Gongadze and Ilya Politkovski, son of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Also present will be Italian officials and representatives from civil society groups.

"This day allows us all to remember that the mafia extracts a huge tax each year in lost lives, human suffering and destruction," Sullivan said.  "The way to fight this scourge is for each one of us to say we will not tolerate this behavior.  We must pressure our government officials and law enforcement to act."

The event is co-sponsored by Freedom, Legality And Rights in Europe (FLARE), a network made of civil society organisations for the social struggle against mafia and transnational organised crime.  Representatives of FLARE participated in OCCRP's regional conference of organized crime reporters in Istanbul last year. FLARE was founded by Libera.

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