In recent years, many had complained about the lack of investigative journalism in the Italian media. There were a few islands, such as Report, a TV program which is aired on Rai 3, or the work by Fabrizio Gatti, a journalist from L’Espresso who wrote a famous story disguising himself as an immigrant to see what working conditions were like in tomato fields in Puglia. Among others, Lirio Abbate had been doing some dangerous and very interesting investigations on the Mafia.

Recently, investigative journalism in Italy has become fashionable again. However, it has taken a peculiar twist, the one of concentrating mostly on the political debate. The first story which led to this re-birth was Conchita Sannino's article on La Repubblica where she famously reported on Berlusconi's visit to the party of the 18 year-old Noemi. This led to a big political scandal and to the decision by Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, to ask for divorce. Other pieces followed, including Fiorella Sarzanini's interview to Patrizia d'Addario, the escort who has now become a world celebrity after having spent a night with the Silvio Berluscon, published on Corriere della Sera.  

The rebirth of investigative journalism in Italy is something to be welcome. However, investigative pieces are becoming increasingly tools for a political war. The right-wing parties claim that there is some sort of conspiratory, invisible, hand behind these investigations on the PM. The left-wing parties blame the newspapers and the TVs owned by the Prime Minister's relatives for producing files in order to defame anyone who makes headlines for opposing the Prime Minister. 

The most recent of such cases has been the one of Raimondo Mesiano, the judge who has recently condemned Fininvest, the holding company owned by the Berlusconi family, to reimburse Cir, the group owned by the entrepreneur and proprietor of La Repubblica, Carlo de Benedetti, 750 million Euro for having bribed a judge during the takeover battle for the publishing house Mondadori. 

Mattino 5, a daily program shown on Mediaset-owned Canale 5, sent a journalist to report on Mesiano's daily life. The images show Mesiano walking, waiting outside a barber shop, smoking and while seated. There is nothing particularly interesting about these images and yet the journalist continues to define his actions as extravagant. Claudio Brachino, the journalist who conducts Mattino 5 said in a statement reported by La Repubblica that he only wanted to let his audience "put a face to a name".

The risks of the politicisation  of Italian investigative journalism emerge clearly in the Mesiano case. Privacy is sometimes the necessary victim of good investigative journalism. However, the investigation should have an important point to make, an interesting story to tell. Filming Mesiano for the sake of filming him and labelling him extravagant is not particularly interesting, and seems more a move to compromise his reputation. If journalists want to attack Messiano for his ruling on Fininvest, they should do it openly and on this issue and not through what look like fairly boring and, perhaps, slightly unsettling reports.