Italian pop singers who glorify mafia face three years in prison
Performers who extol the virtues of a life of crime and gun violence will face prosecution under the legislation, which is being pushed by Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy prime minister and the leader of the hard-Right League party.
He announced the initiative alongside Daniela Di Maggio, a woman whose 23-year-old son, a symphony orchestra musician, was shot dead by a young mafia gangster in Naples in 2023. Since her son's death, Ms Di Maggio, a therapist and counsellor, has become an anti-mafia campaigner.
The proposed law targets anyone, including artists, writers and musicians, who glamorise the criminal underworld 'in whatever form of expression'. The legislation is aimed at neomelodic songs that 'exalt' a life of crime and 'tell young people to go out and buy firearms so that they can feel safe,' said Gianluca Cantalamessa, an MP with the League who comes from Naples.
The definition is so broad that it could also target popular television shows such as Gomorra, a fictionalised portrayal of the Camorra mafia, which is broadcast in the UK.
'There are no positive models in Gomorra, unlike when we were kids when there were goodies and baddies on television and children could choose between the two,' said Mr Cantalamessa.
Last year, more than 44,000 crimes were committed by minors in Italy, who are particularly susceptible to the influence of songs and TV shows that romanticise organised crime, he said.
An 'extravagantly kitsch' wedding
The links between music and the mafia were vividly illustrated in 2019 when a popular neomelodic singer called Tony Colombo married Tina Rispoli, the widow of a mafia boss who was shot dead on a beach in the town of Terracina, north of Naples, a few years before.
The extravagantly kitsch wedding involved four white horses pulling a pumpkin-shaped white carriage through the streets of Naples, while musicians in cream suits played trumpets and jugglers performed with acrobats.
In 2023, the couple were amongst 27 people that were arrested during police raids on one of the clans that make up the Camorra.
Prosecutors accused them of investing £433,393 in the clan and backing a fashion line called 'Corleone', which was named after the town in Sicily which is synonymous with the island's Cosa Nostra mafia. They were also allegedly involved in launching a high-energy drink called ''9mm', which came in a bottle shaped like a bullet.
The couple denied all the accusations. They were acquitted of the charges in March this year.
However many of the other defendants were found guilty, including the brother of Ms Rispoli, who was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
34 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Five years in jail for giving people smugglers social media boost
Anyone caught promoting people smugglers' services in social media posts will face up to five years in jail under new offences announced by the Government. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is to change the law to criminalise the creation of online content which promotes or offers services facilitating a breach of UK immigration law. The new offence, to be introduced through an amendment to Labour's borders bill, will cover small boat crossings, the creation of fake travel documents such as passports or visas, or promising the chance to work illegally in the UK. It will also become a crime to post online content that encourages someone to break UK immigration law in exchange for money. This would cover someone being paid by a people smuggler to post material on social media which promotes illegal journeys to the UK. It will also be punishable by up to five years in jail. The new offences come as the Home Office revealed around 80 per cent of small boat migrants told officials they used social media during their illegal journey to the UK, including to locate or communicate with an agent or facilitator associated with a people-smuggling gang. More than 25,400 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year in 432 small boats, up 50 per cent on last year's figure and the highest number since the first arrivals in 2018. Some 5,454 have made it in July alone in 80 boats. Ms Cooper said: 'Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the UK and a life in this country – whether on or offline – simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral. 'These criminals have no issue with leading migrants to life-threatening situations using brazen tactics on social media. We are determined to do everything we can to stop them – wherever they operate. 'We have to stay one step ahead of the ever-evolving tactics of people-smuggling gangs and this move, part of our plan for change to boost border security, will empower law enforcement to disable these tactics faster and more effectively, ensuring people face proper penalties.' The National Crime Agency (NCA) has smashed crime gangs using social media accounts to promote crossing, including a pair of men from Wales who ran an operation through Europe labelled ' Tripadvisor for people smugglers '. Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 40, brought about 100 migrants illegally to Europe each week over a period of two years and offered them bronze, silver, gold and platinum packages, depending on risk. They were convicted after pleading guilty to people-smuggling midway through their trial. A platinum package could get you a flight, whereas silver might land you a 'comfortable ride' in the back of a lorry. Migrants from the Middle East heading to Europe rated their journeys in videos filmed inside lorries, boats and even on planes. Investigators found the video reviews on the phones of the smugglers themselves, seemingly made as promotional material. Another network operated by Amanj Hasan Zada, a Preston-based smuggler later jailed for 17 years, also posted videos of migrants thanking him for helping them. Albanian gangs have used social media to promote £12,000 'package deals' to Britain, including accommodation and employment upon arrival. Since December 2021, the NCA has worked with social media companies to remove 22,000 posts promoting organised immigration crime. More than 8,000 were removed in 2024, a 40 per cent increase on the previous year. It follows measures introduced as part of the Online Safety Act under which social media companies have been required to prevent and remove adverts by people smugglers for small boat crossings of the Channel or face jail and multi-million pound fines under new laws. Under the Act, two current offences involving modern slavery or exploitation and aiding and abetting crossings have become 'priority' offences in the bill. This means social media firms have to proactively prevent the adverts from being posted and remove any that are put up. If they fail to do so, Ofcom, the watchdog, has powers to fine them up to 10 per cent of their global turnover, equivalent to £9.7 billion for Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The watchdog Ofcom will also be able to block their services in the UK.
Telegraph
34 minutes ago
- Telegraph
What does it mean to be an ‘authentic conservative'? Three writers give their view
Kemi Badenoch has urged Conservative MPs to'take an authentically conservative position'. What does that mean? Paul Goodman recently wrote in our pages on how he interprets the phrase. We have now asked three more Conservative politicians (who also happen to be conservative thinkers) to write on how they interpret it. Bill Cash was Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee between 2010 and 2024 and Shadow Attorney General between 2001 and 2003; Jesse Norman is shadow Leader of the House and a biographer of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith; Neil O'Brien is shadow minister for policy renewal and development. Bill Cash: it is about affirming our democratic sovereignty The Conservative Party's authenticity comes from values and principles that serve the national interest. This has been the case since Edmund Burke. Reform, with their misleading claims and no solutions, has gained some traction on us. But all is not lost. Our beliefs have sustained us for 250 years: when Robert Peel resigned in the national interest because his party in Parliament would not repeal the Corn Laws, his nemesis Benjamin Disraeli ultimately agreed and stated: 'The Tory Party is a national party or it is nothing.' Disraeli then came to accept John Bright's campaign and a successful extension of the franchise for modern democracy in 1867. Winston Churchill preferred 'country first, constituency second, party third.' Margaret Thatcher in 1975 replaced Heath and, later, at the Bruges speech in 1988, paved the way for our restoration of democratic self-government on the European issue. This was despite opposition from within her Cabinet. Boris Johnson ensured Brexit and removed the whip from 27 Remainers in the Party in 2019 who sided with Labour. Authentic Conservatism thus includes rejecting subjugation to European Union laws and jurisdiction, and promotes the Brexit freedoms by self-government and prosperity through small businesses and deregulation, lower taxation, property ownership and inheritance, family values, free speech, proportional fairness not wokery, defence with Nato and the full restoration of the Union itself, including Northern Ireland and border control. It includes overcoming the catastrophes of net and illegal migration. This means leaving the ECHR, with clear and unambiguous Acts of Parliament to override international law on the Supreme Court's own principle of legality. The Conservative Party must now decisively insist on being united in getting this principle right and repudiating Keir Starmer's EU/UK reset with its dynamic alignment which undermines the authentic Conservative insistence on democratic sovereignty. Jesse Norman: it is about practical solutions that serve Britain Conservatism in Britain has never been a slogan or a cult of personality. It is a tradition arising from our history, our Parliament and our constitution. At its best, conservatism distrusts ideology and its easy certainties, let alone the rootless and corrosive flattery of populism. Real conservatism is practical. It knows that our liberties and prosperity come from hard work, and the long grind of political reform. It respects the grain of this country: our armed forces, schools and, yes, universities; the Church, the charities and local councils that knit communities together. It insists that the Government should help people to take responsibility for their lives, not grab powers to itself. As a political party, the Conservatives have been repeatedly attacked for their record after 2010. But in many places the story is a notable one and worthy of robust defence: the long, slow recovery from the global financial crisis to which Labour had left this country so exposed; massively effective schools reform; the gradual introduction of universal credit, which performed brilliantly during the pandemic; our immediate and resolute support for Ukraine after it was invaded by Russia in 2022. Why did these initiatives succeed? Because they were inspired by core conservative principles of fiscal prudence, the desire to reform public services and the defence of Europe. But Conservatives should also accept that some decisions after 2010 were not conservative. Interventions in Libya and Syria were marked more by speed than prudence. Major projects such as HS2 were launched without the care and scrutiny they demanded. Net zero was agreed after one short Commons debate. Inadequate steps were taken to curb legal and illegal migration. A succession of referendums unsettled our constitutional balance and exposed deep national divisions. The lesson is clear. Conservatism works when it is steady, serious, and focused on practical solutions that reflect its core belief in preserving what is best in British society. Neil O'Brien: it is about accountability Conservatives believe in accountability. Since the Blair era we have seen far too much power handed to law courts, quangos and international bodies that aren't accountable to the British public. Power without accountability means bad decisions. This has created a topsy-turvy, two-tier Britain: the rights of prolific criminals, illegal immigrants and benefit claimants are prioritised over the rights of the law-abiding and hard-working. Rule by lawyers also explains why we can't cut welfare spending or build the infrastructure we need to grow. We also believe in order. The first duty of the Government is to keep citizens safe. That means a return to no-nonsense policing. We should be focused on catching criminals, not policing what people say or think. And it means ending endless community sentences and slaps on the wrist for serious crimes. Conservatives know that a disorderly environment breeds anti-social behaviour and crime. Yet under Labour our capital stinks of weed, tube trains are covered in graffiti and petty crimes like fare dodging are becoming normalised. Conservatives believe in the nation. We took back control from the EU. We must now drastically cut immigration. As Kemi Badenoch says: the country must be 'a home, not a hotel'. We can't have a strong, united nation with a transient and constantly churning population. We also believe in the family and individual responsibility. Fairness means people getting what they deserve based on their individual actions and merits. People should be able to build something up – a family home, a farm, a business, some savings – without it being plundered by the Government. It means welfare for those who really need it, not a system that costs taxpayers ever more and traps people in a cycle of dependency. And conservatives believe in free markets. Under Labour we are in an economic doom loop. Higher taxation and more regulation lead to stagnation. Higher borrowing sends the Chancellor scrambling for yet higher taxes. Massive changes are needed to break out of this spiral, and make Britain a good place to grow a business. We believe in sound money: unlike others, we will not make fantasy promises that can never be delivered.
Telegraph
34 minutes ago
- Telegraph
1939 vs 1975: Which was the greatest year in cinema ever?
Which was the greatest year in cinema ever? Not so long ago, the answer was obvious – the films of 1939 used to rule the world. Wistful critics and tweedy academics waxed lyrical about their unrivalled artistry. Grandparents paused their afternoons when they caught Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach or The Wizard of Oz on TV, resuming them only once the credits rolled. And then, somewhere down the line, those films disappeared. Millennials consider them unbearably antiquated and irrelevant; Gen Z thinks that Greta Garbo is an exciting young winger who plays for Real Madrid and John Wayne is probably a friend of their dad's. The right-on film studies crowd savaged these pictures for their racism, sentimentality and deference to authority. They have a new cinematic annus mirabilis: 1975. That was the year of Jaws, the first modern blockbuster, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which reinvented comedy. It was when Dog Day Afternoon and Nashville tore open the range of stories that Hollywood drama could depict, and the iconoclastic One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest won the Best Picture Oscar. The musical came back from the dead too, madder than ever, in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Who's Tommy. And cinema-goers could also find Barry Lyndon, Young Frankenstein, 3 Days of the Condor, and umpteen foreign-language masterpieces on the big screen. No wonder cinephiles adore it. In 2022, Sight and Sound magazine named 1975's brilliant but obscure drama Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as the greatest film ever made, and last month ran a special issue on the movies released that year. On the face of it, they do seem more attuned to our cynical and irreverent age. The rebellious baby boomers who made them are now our cultural elders – the leader of Python's Knights Who Say 'Ni!' now really is Sir Michael Palin – and the world has followed their example in distrusting (and lampooning) authority. We still respond to the anti-establishment bite of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and relate to the alienated outsiders and weirdos in Python or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yet the largely forgotten films of 1939 have aged much better than we think. Their endearing innocence and solidity, once dismissed as naive, is a surprising relief from modern anxieties. And they're still remarkably entertaining, almost a century after they were made. So which year is the best in cinema history? I've put their greatest films head-to-head across different categories below, and you can vote for your winners in our polls. Meanwhile, if you think that there are other golden years in cinema history beyond the two I've chosen, then you can make your case in the comments section. We'll pull out the best of your responses. One-word thrillers Stagecoach vs Jaws
