So here's what I *would have* said on @BBCr4today about the big 'Ndrangheta trial covered in all the UK papers, such as @guardian in an article by the excellent @lorenzo_tondo (Thread) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/13/italy-mafia-trial-ndragheta-calabria

The interviewees in this article make some huge claims about this trial. Historic. Will finally reveal the secrets of the 'ndrangheta. Will finally reveal mafia infiltration of state and economy. Biggest since the Palermo maxi trial (1986-7). etc etc. (2...)

Yet the trial is not receiving remotely the same amount of coverage in Italy that it is in the UK. How so? (3...)

First, there's no doubt this is an important trial. The Mancuso clan are key players, liked to the real centres of 'ndrangheta power further south in the province of Reggio Calabria. (4...)

If all goes as planned, lots of bad guys will end up behind bars, and that can only be a good thing. So kudos to the forces of order (as they say in Italy) and the magistrates. (5...)

And the trial is a massive logistical achievement too, especially in the current circumstances. Amazing. Tanto di cappello. (6...)

HOWEVER (7....)

'ndrangheta trials on this sort of scale are not unusual, and never have been. I've examined some from the 1880s and 1890s. Because a criminal *organization* is on trial, so you need to put the organization in the dock. (8...)j

And even in some of those trials, it was clear that the 'ndrangheta had the power to infiltrate politics and the economy. So no "historic" revelations there either (9...)

Nor does this trial aim to reveal any new secrets about the way the 'Ndrangheta is organized. (10...)

Nor is the target the real epicentre of the 'ndrangheta which, as I already mentioned, is not in Vibo. Ultimately the Mancuso clan are outriders for the usual suspects: Piromalli, De Stefano, etc etc. These are the really big names in the 'ndrangheta (11...)

So anyone who compares this trial to the Palermo maxi-trial of 1986-7, which targeted the then all-powerful Cosa Nostra, created a legal precedent for prosecuting mafias as organisations, and changed Italian history, needs a history lesson, I'm afraid. (12...)

A decade ago, there was a genuinely historic trial against the 'ndrangheta, known as Crimine-Infinito, which really was the equivalent of the Palermo maxi-trial in some senses, because it proved the 'ndrangheta was a single organization and not a loose world of gangs (13...)

Yet Crimine-Infinito hardly got covered at all in the press outside Italy. So what is going on here? The issue is the role of publicity in the fight against the mafias (14...)

Chief Prosecutor Pignatone, for Crimine-Infinito, preferred to let facts speak. He had a softly softly manner with the media. (15...)

Whereas Chief Prosecutor Gratteri, for this trial, is much more of a celebrity. His critics might say he loves the limelight too much. However, ... (16..)

I think his calculation is that both Italy and the world need to understand the 'ndrangheta better. More media attention means more police attention, ultimately. And more resources. (17...)

He's a veteran of the days when *nobody* talked about the 'ndrangheta at all. And he knows how hard it is to waken public opinion to anything that is going on in a marginalised region like Calabria. (18. ENDS)