Italy’s General Directorate of Archives within the Culture Ministry’s heritage department has revoked a circular that had blocked public access to court rulings concerning historical massacres. The issue gained prominence during the August 2nd Bologna massacre commemoration, where victims’ families demanded the reversal and Culture Minister Anna Maria Bernini, representing the government, pledged to find a solution.
“The interest in the accessibility of documents pertaining to some of the gravest events in the nation’s life is recognized as absolutely paramount,” stated Antonio Tarasco, Director General of the State Archives, in the new circular. This directive annuls last year’s measure imposing confidentiality restrictions on State Archives holdings related to massacre trials.
The replacement circular clarifies that the administration’s goal is “to promote the broadest possible knowledge, accessibility, and dissemination of court rulings and judicial proceedings documents” held in the State Archives. It explicitly states that confidentiality rules do not apply to documents concerning terrorism cases, massacres, and other events that “shook the civil conscience of the country.”
PD deputy Andrea De Maria, who had filed a parliamentary inquiry on the matter, welcomed the move as “a correct, though belated, choice for transparency that rectifies a serious mistake which should certainly have been avoided.”