UN raps Italy press for racism, urges ethical code

MILAN, Jan 19 (Reuters) The United Nations urged Italy's press today to adopt an ethical code against racist reporting after a Tunisian immigrant was wrongly accused by newspapers of murdering his family last month.

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had asked a group of academics, communications experts and journalists to draw up guidelines on how to report on issues regarding immigration and asylum seekers.

Some of the main dailies issued rare apologies in December after it emerged that Azouz Marzouk, whom they had accused of slitting the throats of his wife, son and mother-in-law in the northern town of Erba, had been in Tunisia at the time.

''The awful Erba episode was made even worse by what followed: the hunt against the Tunisian, the hostility against the Arab,'' UNHCR said in a statement.

It sent a letter to the editors of Italy's main newspapers urging them to learn the lesson of the way the press had pointed the finger at ''the ruthless Arab''.

The ''Erba massacre'' case, as it is known in Italy, was closed when the victims' neighbours, a middle-aged couple with no criminal record, confessed to the murders. They said they had killed Marzouk's family because they were insufferably noisy.

Reuters LL DB2252