Yesterday, the Council of Ministers approved the text of the legislative decree on the modification of article 114 of the code of criminal procedure, providing for the prohibition of publication of the text of the precautionary custody order until the preliminary investigations are concluded or until the end of the preliminary hearing. The measure, it is communicated, was taken in order to adapt the national legislation to the provisions of the European directive.
This is a limitation of freedom of the press, which also serves as a safeguard for citizens and the accused themselvessince the order is in any case an act of the judge, third party with respect to the parties. With the new regulation it will no longer be possible to quote in full, as in quotation marks so to speak, but only in extracts, among other things opening the possibility of misinterpretations and misunderstandings with respect to the textual quotation. The National Federation of the Press had immediately protested.
The halt to the publication of custody orders takes a further step. After the final approval by Parliament and the publication last February 24 in the Official Journal of the European delegation law, which entrusted the government with a delegation for the implementation of European directivesthe ‘Costa’ rule (from the name of the Azione representative, signatory of the approved amendment, later renamed by the opposition ‘gag rule’) was the subject of the “preliminary” examination of the Council of Ministers which met yesterday. The ad hoc legislative decree, therefore, must now be examined by the competent parliamentary committees for the relative opinion which, however, is not binding.
Muzzle the press? Just a bad law
edmondo bruti freed
“In order to strengthen some aspects of the presumption of innocence of the person investigated or accused in criminal proceedings, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 3 and 4 of EU Directive 2016/343 and in compliance with the principles set out in Articles 21, 24 and 27 of the Constitution, the provision modifies Article 114 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, providing for the prohibition of publication of the text of the precautionary custody order until the preliminary investigations are concluded or until the end of the preliminary hearing”, reads the press release issued at the end of the Council of Ministers. “The text – it is recalled in the press release – implements Article 4 of the European delegation law 2022-2023 with which the government was delegated to adopt the provisions necessary to ensure full compliance with the European directive”. In essence, the legislative decree, which implements the delegation assigned to the government, implements the ban on the publication, in full or in extract, of the text of the provision ordering precautionary custody until the preliminary investigations are concluded or until the end of the preliminary hearing.
Fnsi: “Gambling the press. Citizens will not be able to learn facts of public interest”
“Those who want to muzzle the press have managed to complete the job. After the approval of parliament at the beginning of the year, the Costa law enters the Code of Criminal Procedure. Yesterday’s approval by the Council of Ministers of the draft legislative decree amending Article 114, which imposes a ban on the publication of the text of the precautionary custody order until the preliminary investigations are concluded or until the end of the preliminary hearing, is a bad news for journalists and even worse for citizens, who will not be able to learn about facts of significant public interest for months”. Alessandra Costante, secretary general of the Fnsi, states this. «The Italian government – she continues – uses double standards: in relation to beach operators, it has difficulty in implementing a 2006 directive, the Bolkestein, in the case of journalists, it has managed to approve the directive on the presumption of innocence twicefirst with the Cartabia reform and finally with the amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure”.
«The journalists’ union – concludes Costante – will continue its fight for the right to inform and be informed, increasingly threatened by gag lawsone-way press conferences, politicians who speak through self-produced videos, lawsuits filed to block the activity of journalists. Liberticidal laws, employment uncertainty, salaries frozen for ten years and starvation wages for freelancers are making this country less democratic. On these issues we ask Europe not to turn off the light that has been lit in recent months”.
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