Gagged - International Festival of Civil Journalism: A Beacon of Hope Amidst Conflict

The iconic image of the 9th edition of "Gagged - International Festival of Civil Journalism" from April 22 to 24 at the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies in Naples, is signed by the Palestinian photojournalist Abed Zagout and depicts one of the many funerals of journalists in Gaza, with microphones and cameras on the coffins. Along with his wife and 5 children, after living in a tent in Rafah, Abed Zagout is now exiled in Egypt. Winner of the Impact Awards 2023 and the Red Cross Photography Award in 2008, he has nothing left, having lost his photographic equipment during the bombings. A fundraising campaign is active to repurchase it. "I have seen - Instruments of Peace" is the theme chosen by the festival, conceived by Désirée Klain, who is also the artistic director. The Egyptian-Palestinian journalist Youmna ElSayed, correspondent from Gaza for Al Jazeera English, will receive the Pimetel Fonseca Award at the opening at 5 pm, presented by Rai correspondent Lucia Goracci and dedicated to the 109 reporters killed in the Strip. An honorary award for the Campanian journalist under escort Marilena Natale, with interventions by Massimiliano Marotta, Omar Suleiman, Jamal Qaddorah, Giuseppe Giulietti, coordinator of Article21. The topic of "Forgotten Wars" will be discussed by Mexican journalist Kena A. Megan, Ukrainian Zhanna Zukova, the Ukrainian consul in Naples Maksym Kovalenko, the Ivorian president of the immigrant council and of Article21 Campania Fatou Diako, Enzo Nucci and Antonella Napoli, and the Afghans Farzana Jadid, Najeeb Farzad, Barbara Schiavulli. "Truth and Justice" is the tribute to Mario Paciolla. Among the events "Gags and Batons" will also feature Vincenzo Vita, Vittorio Di Trapani, Claudio Silvestri. The book by Luciana Esposito "Francesco Pio. Forever Eighteen Years Old" (Iod) will be presented by Enzo d'Errico and Giuseppe Giulietti. The "Tales of the Resistance" with the Anpi will close the festival, which for the Pimentel Award has the support of the City of Naples, is realized by "Peripheries of the World - Imaginary Periphery" in collaboration with the Institute for Philosophical Studies, OdG, FNSI, SUGC, Amnesty International Italy. For the "ceasefire in the Middle East" video appeal by Marisa Laurito. In the festival logo, the Mehari of Giancarlo Siani, a journalist murdered by the Camorra in 1985.