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ROME: A prominent Italian journalist threatened by the mafia had his parked car blown up by a bomb overnight, causing no injuries but sparking widespread outrage Friday from politicians and press groups.
Sigfrido Ranucci’s vehicle was destroyed by the explosion in Pomezia, near Rome, which also damaged the family’s other car and the house next door, according to his investigative television show.
“The force of the explosion was so strong that it could have killed anyone passing by at that moment,” Report, which broadcasts on RAI public television, said in a statement on X.
Anti-mafia prosecutors in Rome are investigating the attack on Ranucci, who has lived under police protection since 2014 due to death threats.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni strongly condemned what she called a “serious act of intimidation.”
“The freedom and independence of information are non-negotiable values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend,” she wrote on X.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he had ordered an increase in the journalist’s security “to the maximum.”
Video footage of the aftermath posted by Report on social media showed twisted metal and shattered car windows.
“At least one kilo of explosives was used,” Ranucci told the Corriere della Sera daily.
His son had used his car earlier, while his daughter had walked by 20 minutes before the bomb exploded, he said.

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Report is known for its in-depth investigative reports and Ranucci has also written a book on the mafia.
In a 2021 television program, he described how a former prisoner told him that mobsters “had given the order to kill you” after his book was published, but the hit “was stopped.”
Ranucci told Corriere he had also received various threats recently, including finding two bullets outside his house.
On Sunday, he revealed the highlights of the upcoming Report series on social media, including investigative reports into the powerful ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group in Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia.
According to campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Italy ranks 49th in the world for press freedom.
Pavol Szalai, RSF’s Europe head, told AFP it was “the most serious attack against an Italian reporter in recent years.”
“Press freedom itself is facing an existential threat in Italy.”
The group warned in its last update that journalists who investigate organized crime and corruption are “systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence.”
About 20 journalists currently live under permanent police protection after being the targets of intimidation and attacks, it said.
The most high profile is Roberto Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller “Gomorrah.”
Saviano linked the attack on Ranucci to a political climate in Italy in which journalist are seen as legitimate “targets.”

WASHINGTON: Democratic and Republican US senators announced plans on Friday to force a vote on a resolution to prevent military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization, seeking to rein in President Donald Trump’s escalation of pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who is sponsoring the war powers resolution with fellow Democrat Adam Schiff of California and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, said he was responding to the repeated US strikes on boats off Venezuela.
There have been at least five such strikes, which the Trump administration says are part of a campaign against drug traffickers. They have killed at least 27 people.
Kaine noted the US constitutional requirement that only Congress, not the president, authorizes war, except for short-term strikes.
The Trump administration’s campaign in the southern Caribbean has lasted for weeks. Trump has also dangled the possibility of land attacks against Venezuela. And he disclosed on Wednesday that he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
“It’s clear there’s no congressional authorization for this action,” Kaine told reporters.
The strikes have led some legal experts to question whether the US is violating international law. Colombia, which has condemned the strikes, said one of the vessels was Colombian with Colombian citizens aboard. The Trump administration called that assertion “baseless.”
The surprise announcement on Thursday that the admiral who heads US military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of the year added to questions about the campaign.
Venezuela has asked the United Nations Security Council to determine that the strikes are illegal, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.

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The Trump administration argues it is fighting Venezuelan narcoterrorists, making the strikes legitimate.
Members of the US Congress from both parties have complained they have received scant information, such as who was killed, evidence of trafficking, the buildup’s cost or the administration’s long-term Latin American strategy.
“It’s a complete black hole,” Kaine said.
He also said the administration has not explained why it needed to blow up the vessels, killing everyone on board, rather than intercepting them. Trump on Wednesday said interdicting drug boats was “politically correct” and had not stopped the drug trade.
The Senate blocked a similar resolution last week by a narrow 51-48 vote, mostly along party lines, with two Republicans backing the resolution and one Democrat opposing it. Trump’s fellow Republicans said the president was merely keeping a campaign promise to attack drug cartels.
Kaine said he hoped the new resolution, to bar military action against or within Venezuela without congressional approval, would garner a few more Republican votes.
“The military is not to be used just so we can kill anyone we want anywhere in the world, as long as the president has put them on a secret list,” Kaine said.
“I may be optimistic on this, but I think that there will be a point where more (Republicans) will say, ‘Hold on a second,’” he added.