Last weekend, Italy’s defence minister said that the country’s special forces were rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by armed pirates. The reality was something quite different.
Three military ships, two attack helicopters and dozens of special forces units were deployed by Italy last weekend to rescue a Turkish vessel off the coast of Naples which Italian media reported had been hijacked by “pirates.”
According to the news reported by many of the country’s biggest newspapers, like Repubblica, Libero, and La Stampa, a group of 15 armed “pirates” had claimed control of the cargo ship headed to France on Saturday, taking the vessel’s crew hostage after being discovered on board.
But the sensational headlines turned out to be entirely misleading. So where did media outlets get their information from?
Although there was no official press release from authorities…
