Japan earthquake shakes Italian media

Published 1st April, 2011 on the European Journalism Centre magazine. Authors: Alessia Cerantola/Scilla Alecci

Fai clic qui per effettuaThe magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 also shook major Italian media outlets as readers accused them of sensationalism and lack of professionalism. 

Many TV and newspaper reporters sent to the afflicted areas to cover the disaster were blamed for failing to provide concise and reliable news, delivering instead exaggerated and imprecise data.

“[Tokyo] is today a capital in agony. It is about to collapse and is expecting the worst”, “ Peppe is the last Italian in Tokyo” (later revised), “Photographs from Saitama, the stadium-shelter of the contaminated people,” read some of the articles that appeared in the days immediately after the quake on the websites of La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera - two of Italy’s largest newspapers.

The tone of the articles angered those who felt that the reality described by the correspondents didn’t match what they were experiencing first hand in Tokyo or elsewhere in the country. It didn’t take long for some Japan-savvy Italians, inside and outside the country, to start sending letters of protest to the editors.


Tokyo - People sleep at a station waiting for the first train in the night between March 11 and 12, a few hours after the earthquake. (Mar 12)

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