An Italian journalist was targeted in the dead of the night this week as five shots were fired into his home – three of the bullets were embedded in the wall of his children’s bedroom.

Ario Gervasutti, former director of Il Giornale di Vicenza and journalist at Il Gazzettino, was shocked at the attack which took place on Monday at 2am in his Padova home. Nobody was injured.

He said he had no idea who could be behind the shooting as he had not received any death threats. He did not exclude it being linked to his job.

Gervasutti was awoken by the shots and immediately called the police who are investigating the shooting. Two of the bullets were found in the road.

The incident was condemned by Luca Zaia, president of Veneto, who said it was “extremely serious”. He pointed out that attacking a journalist was an “attack against opinions and ideas” and he offered his complete and full solidarity with the journalist and his family.

Words of support, condemning the shooting, came from Italian journalists and the President of the Italian Senate.

This shooting took place almost a week after another Italian investigative journalist Marilu Mastrogiovanni received hundreds of e-mails with death threats – some from an e-mail address that read “death approaches (la morte si avvicina)”.

Mastrogiovanni, who works for Sicilian newspaper il Tacco said that she was not going to remain silent even after receiving these death threats. She is one of the many investigative journalists who continued working to keep alive the stories and investigations of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia after she was murdered.

In an interview last week, Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova spoke of the need for governments to protect journalists in the EU.