Clarissa Ward of CNN and Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 did not hesitate for a moment to respond to the plea for help issued by war correspondent Mattia Sorbi – who was already wounded in Ukraine in 2022 and is now effectively being held hostage in Kenya – by sharing our article about his situation on their social media accounts. For those unfamiliar with these names, we are talking about two heavyweights of international journalism, two veteran war correspondents of worldwide renown who, in any normal country, would need no introduction. News of Sorbi's plight has reportedly even reached Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. In Italy, however, in this provincial little corner of the world shaped like a boot, not a single prominent journalist from the mainstream press has bothered to write even one line about Mattia Sorbi's situation since we first brought his ordeal to light here at MOW. When will they finally start talking about it? Once the story has already been extensively covered by the international press? We sincerely hope to be proven wrong, but for now, only we at MOW and Dagospia, which republished our article yesterday, are covering this story.
For those unfamiliar with our colleague's situation, Sorbi is currently being held hostage in Kenya because a friend of his, Caroline Abbo, drowned in the swimming pool of the villa where he was vacationing in Kwale on September 21. Sorbi is not under investigation in connection with the woman's death – otherwise, he would have been thrown into jail more than a month ago – but is considered a "person of interest" by the police. For this reason, his passport has been confiscated and will only be returned once the autopsy on poor Caroline's body has been completed. According to the Kenyan authorities, because Caroline was a Ugandan citizen, the autopsy would require the presence of a diplomat from her home country, even though, under the law, they could proceed without one. Yet, for some obscure and Kafkaesque reason, they have chosen not to do so. The Ugandan consulate in Mombasa, for its part, claims never to have received any letter from Kwale, where the tragedy occurred, while the Kenyan police insist otherwise. Meanwhile, Ugandan Ambassador Herbert Kiguli was arrested on corruption charges linked to the Covid pandemic. As if that weren't enough, Italy's ambassador to Nairobi, Vincenzo Del Monaco, apparently remains reluctant to contact the Ugandan embassy for fear of triggering an issue of "interference between states". Just another way of saying that he would rather wash his hands of the whole affair. In short, Sorbi has found himself trapped in a situation so absurd and almost comical that it would be laughable if it weren't real. Whatever anyone might say, it is not wrong to describe our colleague as technically being held hostage by the Kenyan authorities. As we have already pointed out, under the law, Kenya could proceed with the autopsy independently. What is even more infuriating, however, beyond the inaction of the Italian embassy, is the deafening silence of the Italian press, which, of course, has apparently been far too busy over the weekend writing about just about anything else.
From strikes to the mystery surrounding who Yousef Siher really is, the Italian press seems more interested in covering just about anything rather than addressing the plight of an Italian journalist stranded abroad who, incidentally, had already found himself at the center of controversy and political exploitation in the past. That happened during his hospitalization in Kherson, after being caught in an RPG attack, when he was rescued by the Russians and treated by the Ukrainians. Instead of properly explaining what had happened, the Italian media preferred to exploit the incident to stir up controversy and pick fights among fellow journalists, as usual. Are we at MOW and Dagospia really the only ones who have given a voice to Mattia Sorbi's plight, both in Italy and internationally, alongside the remarkably swift social media reposts by CNN's Clarissa Ward and Channel 4's Lindsey Hilsum? These two internationally renowned heavyweights of journalism, undoubtedly incredibly busy women, somehow managed to find not just the time, but above all the compassion that their Italian colleagues seem to have left hanging somewhere, long forgotten.
