Featured Image Credit: TG/5 / Mediaset
Topics: Crime, World News
Stefania Sarrubba
A 50-year-old man has admitted to killing his mother in a shocking interview aired by an Italian talk show, cracking open a huge debate about media ethics in the region.
Lorenzo Carbone confessed to strangling his mother, Loretta Levrini, 80, to death to the cameras of Italian show Pomeriggio Cinque earlier this week, who had come across him by chance outside his Spezzano di Fiorano home while covering the story.
Carbone, who lived with his mother, appeared in a confused state and was in tears during the interview, explaining to the camera that he had fled to the nearby town of Pavullo, where he walked the streets before returning home.
Police had been searching for him since Sunday, when the body of his mother Loretta was found by her daughter.
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Speaking on camera, Carbone explained his mother had been living with dementia, adding: "I couldn't stand it any longer, I couldn't manage her.”
He continued: “I strangled her, I don’t know why I did it. Every now and then she made me angry as she kept repeating herself.”
Giuffrida immediately called the police, who arrested Carbone and took him into custody.
The interview with the suspect was aired a few minutes later by Pomeriggio Cinque, a decision that sparked backlash in Italy.
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The show host, Myrta Merlino, came under fire for choosing to run the clip, though she told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera she had 'reasoned as a journalist'.
“I received a call from the correspondent a few minutes before going live,” she explained.
“I had little time to decide. I only care about one thing: that it doesn’t damage the investigation. The man was wanted. The police were called and authorised me to broadcast the images of the interview.”
Pomeriggio Cinque and broadcaster Mediaset were criticised on social media as well, with Gaia Tortora, the deputy director of Italy’s TV channel TG La7, writing on Twitter: “What happened today on Pomeriggio5 is very serious.”
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Tortora’s post continued: “This is not our job. Tearing up the code of ethics, we are hitting rock bottom.”
Meanwhile, Ermes Antonucci, a journalist with Il Foglio newspaper, said there was no need to air the interview in the first place and questioned the decision to broadcast the confession of 'a man in an evident state of confusion'.
“Wasn’t it enough to call the police, as was fortunately done, and then explain what happened, without airing the video?” Antonucci asked. “The media circus has reached a real low point.”
A post mortem on Levrini is expected to take place in the next few days.