Defamation, Italian Style

Being a journalist in Italy may have occupational hazards, but having to go to prison in your own country because of an article you wrote should not be one of them. However, Italy, a founding Member of both the Council of Europe and the European Union, still punishes defamation through the medium of the press (diffamazione a mezzo stampa) by a prison term.

The penalties are harsh: article 595 of the Italian Penal Code punishes such crimes by six months up to three years in prison, or by a fine which cannot be less than €516 (more or less $675). The penalties are increased if the victim is a political figure, a concept that might surprise United States journalists who generally receive greater protection against defamation liability when writing about politicians.

Three Recent Cases

The law is alive and well enforced. An article written by journalist Orfeo Donatini, titled “Pura razza SüdTirol” (The pure race of South Tyrol), was published in 2008 by the newspaper Alto Adige. It reported that Seven Knoll, a Representative at the Parliament of South Tyrol and the leader of Süd-Tiroler Freiheit, a South Tyrol separatist party, was being investigated by the police for his possible ties with neo-Nazi groups. The source of the information, which had first been published by the national weekly L’Espresso, was a confidential police report.

Knoll did not ask for the article to be corrected, but instead sued both Donatini and the former director of Alto Adige, Tiziano Marson, claiming he had been defamed by the article. The defendants were, in the first instance, acquitted by the Bolzano Court in South Tyrol. Knoll then appealed to the Supreme Court, which quashed the first judgment, and referred the case back to the Bolzano Court. The Bolzano Court held on June, 20, 2012, that both journalists were guilty of defamation and sentenced them to four months in prison and a €15,000 fine. 

Reacting to his sentence, Donatini said that “this sentence drives the journalist to self-censorship, forcing him to think more than once before publishing any news."

Knoll was also criticized for failing to invoke article 8 of the Italian Press law, which provides for a right to reply in the newspaper or magazine which published the alleged defamatory comment. The FNSI, the national federation of the Italian press, commented that “[t]he timely publication of denials, responses, adjustments, and corrections, as stated by Article 8 of the Press law, should be sufficient… to prevent any judicial action, may it be criminal or civil. The appeal to the Judiciary, which is now permanent, for alleged defamation and consequently for alleged damages may greatly limit the right to press freedom and the exercise of journalism.”

This case is not an anomaly. Last Wednesday, the criminal chamber of Italy’s highest court, la Corta di Cassazione, confirmed the 14-month prison sentence for libel given to Alessandro Sallusti, the editor of Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family. Sallusti then resigned from his position, stating that he had no intention to seek alternatives to his prison sentence. The story – concerning a 13-year old girl who had undergone an abortion, and later suffered a nervous breakdown – was picked up widely by Italian media. Il Giornale published an article on February 2007, signed by ‘Dreyfus,’ which virulently denounced the position of the parents, the M.D. who performed the abortion, and the judge who authorized the procedure in lieu of the absent father. The author even expressed regrets that the death penalty was not legal in Italy so that they could all four be sentenced to death. The judge sued for libel and won. The article was in fact written by Renato Farina, currently a Representative elected under the banner of Berlusconi’s party.

In May 2011, the Court of Chieti sentenced two journalists, Walter Claudio and Nerone Lattanzio, from the Pescara newspaper Il Centro. The journalists had reported in November 2007 that a local politician was being investigated by the Guardia di Finanza,the Italian financial police. The mayor had sent a letter to Il Centro stating that he was merely being audited as a value-added-tax number holder. The newspaper published the letter, but the mayor nevertheless filed suit for defamation. Claudio and Lattanzio were sentenced to one year in jail, with no parole option for eight months. Luigi Vicinanza, at the time the director of publication of the newspaper, was given a €12,000 fine for damages. 

Call to Reform