Dig at Meloni’s Height Could Cost Reporter in Italy 5,000 Euros
Dig at Meloni’s Height Could Cost Reporter in Italy 5,000 Euros - The New York Times
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Dig at Meloni’s Height Could Cost Reporter in Italy 5,000 Euros
A lawsuit that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni won is one of several she has filed against critics. Press-freedom groups say it is a concerning practice.
Reporting from Rome
A judge in Milan has found an Italian journalist guilty of defaming Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and ordered her to pay damages of 5,000 euros, or about $5,500, as well as court costs, the defendant’s lawyer said.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the journalist, Giulia Cortese, was also given a suspended fine of 1,200 euros ($1,300) for two posts on Twitter, now known as X, in October 2021, when Ms. Meloni was a lawmaker. In one tweet, she described Ms. Meloni using “not nice words,” Ms. Cortese’s lawyer, David Olivetti, said. In another she took aim at Ms. Meloni’s height, suggesting Ms. Meloni was 1.2 meters, or about 4 feet, tall.
The prosecutor trying Ms. Cortese had called it an example of body shaming. (At a campaign rally in 2022, Ms. Meloni told supporters she was 1.58 meters tall, or 5 feet 2 inches).
Ms. Cortese said Thursday that the past three years had been “quite stressful.” Her social media accounts were targeted by supporters of the prime minister, “who sent me insults and threats.” It was “very unpleasant,” she said, adding, “Above all, it seems absurd to clog up Italian courts, which have to deal with far more serious things, with such nonsense.”
Mr. Olivetti, who defended Ms. Cortese, said he would read the ruling before deciding whether to appeal.
Italy defines defamation as “damage to the reputation of a person through communication with several persons.” It does not distinguish between public figures and ordinary people.
The case against Ms. Cortese is only the latest in a series of defamation lawsuits brought by Ms. Meloni against some of her outspoken critics. Luca Libra, a lawyer who has represented Ms. Meloni in several suits, said that, under Italian law, everyone has the right to criticize, as long as that criticism is not a personal offense.
Last year, a court in Rome ordered Roberto Saviano, the author of the book “Gomorrah,” about organized crime in Naples, to pay 1,000 euros, or about $1,100, and court costs for his criticism of Ms. Meloni during a television program in 2020 in which used a slur to refer to her for her hard-line stance on illegal immigration. The court ruled that slur overstepped the right to criticize. Mr. Saviano has the right to appeal the ruling.
Another defamation lawsuit, against a man who used social media in 2019 to insult Ms. Meloni’s role as a mother, was settled last year. Neither party would discuss the terms of the settlement.
Several organizations that monitor press freedom have voiced concerns about the lawsuits in Italy. Reporters Without Borders, demoted Italy five places to 46th in its World Press Freedom Index this year, considerably lower than Germany (10) or France (21). In its review of Italy, the organization wrote that, “for the most part, Italian journalists enjoy a climate of freedom” but that they can give in to self censorship “to avoid a defamation suit or other form of legal action.”
The organization also raised a red flag about the “legge bavaglio,” or gag law, “advocated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition,” which limits what court and investigative reporters can publish.
Media Freedom Rapid Response, which monitors violations of press freedom across Europe, has also raised concerns about Italy’s defamation laws. It noted in a report this year that investigative reporters faced “an increasing number of vexatious lawsuits often led by members of the current government.”
In April, the journalists’ union at the state broadcaster, Rai, accused it of being “reduced to a megaphone of the government.” A month later, Rai journalists went on strike to protest the government’s “ suffocating control” of journalists there.
At least two other defamation cases will be heard this year. In October, Ms. Meloni is taking to court Luciano Canfora, a historian and philologist who called her a “neo-Nazi at heart,” among other criticisms, during a debate at a high school in Bari, in the Puglia region, in April 2022.
And in November, two journalists from the left-leaning daily Domani are expected to go to trial. That defamation lawsuit concerns an article published in Domani in October 2021 about a judicial investigation of Italy’s top coronavirus pandemic official concerning the sale of masks made in China. The newspaper reported that the Italian official told prosecutors that Ms. Meloni had sponsored a businessman as a possible buyer. Ms. Meloni defended herself saying she had done nothing but pass on an email.
Mr. Libra said in a telephone interview that the lawsuits had all been filed long before she became prime minister.
The only exception is a defamation suit she filed against Brian Molko, the guitarist and singer of the British rock band Placebo, after he called her “fascist” and “racist” and used other derogatory language during a performance in Turin in July 2023. Italian prosecutors are investigating Mr. Molko for contempt, but Mr. Libra did not know if or when the singer would be formally charged.
Ms. Cortese said that whether she appealed or not, the ruling would have an impact on her life. “As a journalist, I no longer feel free to write about politics because I could easily have problems, as I am not favorable to this government,” she said. Lawsuits, she said, “are a form of intimidation.”
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a capsule summary with this article misspelled the first name of Italy’s prime minister. She is Giorgia Meloni, not Georgia.
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Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo
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