Nearly 200 Italian journalists have been receiving police protection in recent years, two dozen of them living and working under escort around the clock.As a Muslim, Black immigrant woman with a history of calling out racism, misogyny, and extremism in her adopted country, Jebreal has for years been on the receiving end of torrents of racist and sexist abuse, as well as death and rape threats.Il Giornale, a daily owned by the family of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, just a few weeks earlier had referred to Jebreal with words like “kefyah,” “Islam,” “#metoo,” and “intifada” — not exactly subtle dog whistles.But the mere threat of legal action, and the fact that an incoming prime minister would directly attack an individual journalist, explicitly naming her, was a remarkable escalation in the already hostile relationship between Italy’s far-right politicians and a dwindling number of members of the Italian media willing to challenge them.“I think ultimately Meloni and her team are trying to make an example out of me, to say, ‘We’re in power now.’” “She’s been trafficking in these conspiracies that are white supremacist, and antisemitic, for a while,” Jebreal told The Intercept, referring to Meloni’s past invocation of the racist “great replacement” and “ethnic substitution” theories, and her antisemitic references to conspiracy theories about billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros."