Draft law in Italy provides for harsh penalties for the press

DThe surprising move by a politician from Italy's largest ruling party to tighten penalties for “defamation” by press organs sparks widespread outrage in politics and the media. Gianni Berrino, Senate parliamentary group leader of the Brothers of Italy under the leadership of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has introduced a bill that, in particularly serious cases, imprisonment of up to four and a half years, fines of up to 120,000 euros and up to ban from working for two years.

In addition to tightening the existing offense, the senator is also committed to punishing “fake news” in traditional and social media. According to this, the “repeated and coordinated distribution of knowingly partially or completely false facts” should be punished with imprisonment of between six months and one year and a fine of between 15,000 and 50,000 euros.

The right and the left distance themselves

Both the parliamentary group leaders of the right-wing national party Lega, led by Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, and the Christian Democratic Forza Italia, led by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, distanced themselves from the move. It was said that Berrino's initiative had not been coordinated within the center-right coalition.

The left-wing opposition parties spoke of a “frontal attack on press freedom” and announced resolute resistance. The draft law contradicts relevant rulings of the Italian Constitutional Court and European courts. In fact, in June 2021, the Italian Supreme Court called on the legislature to abolish prison sentences for the offense of defamation because the European Court of Human Rights had found deprivation of liberty for this offense to be in violation of human rights. It is not known whether the senator coordinated his controversial initiative with Prime Minister Meloni.

Prime Minister Meloni recently reported the writer Roberto Saviano because he had called her a “bastard” on television. Saviano had to pay a fine of 1,000 euros. A trial is pending against the classical philologist Luciano Canfora, who described Meloni as a “neo-Nazi at heart” in April 2022 at an event on the war in Ukraine in a high school in Bari. The trial against Canfora, who was a lifelong supporter of communist internationalism, begins on April 16. The professor emeritus of the University of Bari has announced that he will “confirm and prove” the accusation against Meloni at the court hearing. At the time of both defamation cases, Meloni was an opposition politician in Rome and not yet in (highest) government responsibility.