Abstract

In recent years, there has been a militarization of the borders in the Mediterranean, associated with a focus on the humanitarian discourse, which has fueled a complex logic of threat and benevolence. This «compassionate repression» highlights the ambiguities and paradoxes of both the migratory phenomenon and the humanitarian field. Exploring the visual representation of both search and rescues operations and the fight against the smugglers in the Mediterranean within the broader framework of the new mediated warfare, the article aims at shedding light on how the Italian media represented the role of NGOs in the management of the «migrant crisis», culminating in a widespread criminalization of solidarity.