The ANSA reporter who broke the news of the arrest of Mafia boss of bosses Bernardo Provenzano has been given four armed bodyguards after investigators in Palermo uncovered a plan to murder him.
Lirio Abbate, 38, who recently published a book on the Mafia's links to politics and business, has also been assigned a bullet-proof car.
While police protection is common for Mafia investigators, it is unusual for journalists. Abbate said he believed he was "one of the first" to be given bodyguards.
He admitted he had not been sleeping well since he learned he was in the Mafia sites. "I'm worried about my family, my friends and my colleagues," he said.
Details of the police investigation which found he was a target are being kept secret but the Sicily-based reporter said he knew his book, The Accomplices, had "irritated" some people.
He said that since Provenzano was arrested in April last year there was a sense of fear in Palermo because, with no single figure in charge, local bosses had been "let off the leash" and could be unpredictable.
Abbate, who works at ANSA's bureau in the Sicilian capital, has covered Mafia-related news for many years.
He said he intended to carry on doing his job, even though it had become more complicated now.
"I can't do any really interesting interviews with four policemen standing next to me. I certainly wouldn't have been able to pull off the Provenzano scoop in this situation".
Toto Cuffaro, head of Sicily's regional government, expressed solidarity with the reporter on Tuesday, saying: "Once again the Mafia has shown its cowardly and violent face."
He voiced the hope that Abbate would continue to report news with the same "passion and professionalism" as before.
"It's pretty dramatic when someone who reports on news has to move about under protection," said Senator Carlo Vizzini, a member of parliament's Anti-Mafia Commission.
Messages of solidarity also came from regional and national journalists' associations.
