ITALY: ACTIVISTS PREPARING FOR JULY'S G8 SUMMIT IN GENOA SAY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ARE FOCUSING MORE ON PROSPECT OF VIOLENCE THAN ISSUES RAISED

Record ID: 646983

  • Title: ITALY: ACTIVISTS PREPARING FOR JULY'S G8 SUMMIT IN GENOA SAY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ARE FOCUSING MORE ON PROSPECT OF VIOLENCE THAN ISSUES RAISED
  • Date: 27th June 2001
  • Summary: (W1)GENOA, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS VIEWS OF CITY, PORT/ INDUSTRIAL SKYLINE/FOUNTAIN (4 SHOTS) 0.17 ROME, ITALY (JUNE 28, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. SV: DIRECTOR GENERAL OF GREENPEACE IN ITALY, DOMITILLA SENNI, IN HER OFFICE 0.27 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DOMITILLA SENNI, ASKED ABOUT THE RISK OF VIOLENCE DURING THE G8, SAYING: "First of all I would like to make a very Italian example: Every Sunday in Italian soccer stadiums we see episodes of violence which are far worse than anything we've seen when hundreds of thousand of people have gathered to protest during international summits. (In reference to Genoa's G8) Surely shop windows should not be broken, but it more a question of civic sense, I wouldn't speak about violence." 0.56 4. SV: SENNI SPEAKING TO REPORTER 1.01 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SENNI SAYING: "If all attention is drawn to the violence, on yellow lines, red lines, yellow zones, red zones (no access and limited access zones in Genoa) and this means avoiding to give answers to the people about crucial questions that will have an impact on all the worlds public opinion, then that's a bad start." 1.21 GENOA, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. VARIOUS: VIEWS OF THEATRE CARLO FELICE THAT WILL HOST A CONCERT FOR G8 DELEGATIONS DURING THE SUMMIT/ CONSTRUCTION (3 SHOTS) 1.33 ROME, ITALY (JUNE 27, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. SV: SPOKESMAN FOR THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF) IN ITALY, GIANFRANCO BOLOGNA, WALKING OUT OF ROME'S MUNICIPALITY BUILDING 1.39 8. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SPOKESMAN FOR THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF) IN ITALY, GIANFRANCO BOLOGNA SAYING: "There are no topics that we would like to see being discussed during the G8, there are solutions that we would like to see being offered. We would like the cancellation of debt. We would like serious commitments towords the elimination, or at least the reduction, of the emission of gases that contribute to the natural green-house effect. We would like to see a different form of trade than the one we see today that has rules for states and no rules for multinational corporations. We would like to see real change." 2.07 9. WIDE OF BOLOGNA WITH REPORTER 2.10 10. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) BOLOGNA, ASKED IF HE THINKS THE ONE DAY PROTEST WILL MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR IMPORTANT PEOPLE TO MEET, REPLIES: "I think its a good thing that the great of the world meet. I think the G8 summit is illegitimate because it has no formal basis, I think the UN is a much more appropriate context for their meetings. Yet I think its fair that heads of states meet and try solve problems." 2.28 GENOA, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 11. VARIOUS OF BUILDING WORK IN GENOA (7 SHOTS) 3.06 12. WIDE VIEW OF CITY 3.13 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME AND GENOA, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVAA9RWR8MKKP5PM5KPKLFZKL0FD
  • Story Text: Activists planning rallies at next months Group of
    Eight (G8) summit in Italy say the Italian government and the
    international media was focusing more on the prospects of
    violence than the real issues raised by globalisation.


    Debates about the G8 summit Italy is going to host on
    July 20-22 in the northwestern port city of Genoa are being
    dominated much more by the possibility of violence than by
    anything else, representatives of enviromentalist groups such
    as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund agreed to say.

    According to Domitilla Senni, director general of Greenpeace
    in Italy, the medias and the governments focus on violence is
    disproportionate compared to the actual risks.

    "I would like to make a very Italian example: Every Sunday
    in Italian soccer stadiums we see episodes of violence which
    are far worse than anything weve seen when hundred of thousand
    of people have gathered to protest during international
    summits," she told Reuters.

    "If all attention is drawn to the violence, on yellow
    lines, red lines, yellow zones, red zones (no access and
    limited access zones in Genoa) and this means avoiding to give
    answers to the people about crucial questions that will have
    an impact on all the worlds public opinion, then that's a bad
    start," she added.

    Italy's foreign and interior ministers met representatives
    of the Genoa Social Forum on Thursday (June 28), an umbrella
    organisation comprising over 700 protest groups including
    Greenpeace. The government wanted to discuss the possibility
    of a joint declaration at the G8 summit, while the Forum wants
    to address security and access to Genoa.

    The government is keen to avoid riots like those at the
    European Union summit in Gothenburg earlier this month, when
    some protesters turned the tranquil Swedish port into a war
    zone and police shot and injured three activists.

    Greenpeace and the WWF said the vast majority of activists
    wanted to demonstrate peacefully.

    "There are no topics that we would like to see being
    discussed during the G8, there are solutions that we would
    like to see being offered," said the spoksman of the World
    Wildlife Fund, Gianfranco Bologna, pointing at trade, gas
    emissions and debt as the crucial problems.

    "We would like the cancellation of debt. We would like
    serious commitments towords the elimination, or at least the
    reduction, of the emission of gases that contribute to the
    natural green-house effect. We would like to see a different
    form of trade than the one we see today that has rules for
    states and no rules for multinational corporations. We would
    like to see real change," Bologna said.

    Asked if he thought the day will come when anti-globalisations protesters will make it impossible for the head of states to
    meet, Bologna said: "I think its a good thing that the powerful
    of the world meet. I think the G8 summit is illegitimate because
    it has no formal basis, I think the UN is a much more appropriate context for their meetings. Yet I think its fair that heads of
    states meet and try solve problems."
    Building work in Genoa, meanwhile, gos on as the city gets
    ready for whatever may come.


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