Commemoration for Italian journalists killed in Mostar tomorrow

(Patria) - As every year, the Italian Embassy in BiH is organizing a commemoration for the three journalists of the Italian television RAI, Mario Luchetta, Dario D’Angelo, and Alessandro Otto, who were killed on January 28, 1994, in Mostar while filming a report on children in war.

The commemoration will be held at the site of their death, on Saturday, January 28, starting at 11:00 AM. The Italian Ambassador to BiH, Marco Di Ruzza, will lay a wreath on the memorial plaque for the three journalists (Braće Fejića Street no. 82A), in the presence of the Mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić, and the President of the City Council, Salem Marić.

As happened many times across Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ceasefire was not respected then either, and shooting began while the RAI crew was filming children in the eastern part of Mostar outside shelters. They quickly fled to a shelter, but since there was no light inside to film, as soon as it calmed down outside, they went out again.

They were filming a boy named Zlatko when a mortar shell fell a few meters from the shelter entrance.

Only Zlatko survived, while the three journalists, wearing bulletproof vests, who had surrounded him to film and protect him, could not be saved.

A short documentary film by RAI about the three reporters and some of the footage they shot in Mostar on the day they were killed was shown at the Mostar City Hall, followed by an open debate on the importance and role of freedom of information.