Italy

(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has learned with anger that police searched the home of journalist Giuseppe d’Avanzo on 13 December 2007, a day after an article of his in the Rome-based daily “La Repubblica” revealed that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is being investigated on suspicion of trying to corrupt senators. The Naples prosecutor’s […]

(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has called on Italy’s senators not to approve a bill on telephone tapping that regulates the publication of phone call intercepts in the news media. Presented by justice minister Clemente Mastella, the bill sailed through the chamber of deputies on 17 April 2007 with 447 votes in favour, 7 abstentions […]

(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has deplored police searches of the offices of the daily newspapers “La Repubblica” in Rome and Milan and “Il Piccolo” in Trieste and said it was “unacceptable” that journalists were being treated as police assistants. “We are alarmed at the attitude of the judiciary, which is freely violating the secrecy […]

(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned a 13,500-euro sentence against blogger Roberto Mancini in fines, damages and costs imposed by a court in Val d’Aosta, in northern Italy on 26 May 2006, after local journalists brought forward a defamation suit. Mancini, 59, is suspected of creating a US-hosted blog in 2005 – Il Bolscevicostanco […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: Italian court frees journalist held after writing about serial murders New York, May 3, 2006 – Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist whose new book raises questions about a serial murder investigation, was released from a prison in the central city of Perugia on Saturday, according to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) -The following is a CPJ letter to President Berlusconi: The Honorable Silvio Berlusconi President of the Council of Ministers Presidenza del Consiglio dei ministri Palazzo Chigi Piazza Colonna 370 00186 Roma Italia Via Facsimile: 011 39 066 7793169 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending the rights […]

(IFLA/FAIFE/IFEX) – The following is an IFLA/FAIFE press release: Not Guilty: Final Verdict on Italian Librarian Accused of Lending an Obscene Book to a Minor IFLA/FAIFE are extremely pleased to announce that the Italian librarian recently accused of lending an obscene book to a minor has been acquitted on appeal of all charges (see the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: ITALY: Police search Corriere della Sera newsroom New York, May 27, 2005 – Six police officers searched the headquarters of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading national daily based in Milan. The officers spent at least two hours in the newsroom Wednesday evening, looking for documents that […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is a 15 April 2005 IFJ media release: IFJ Welcomes “First Step” and Calls On Berlusconi to Quit Italian TV Market The International Federation of Journalists today welcomed the decision by Silvio Berlusconi to cut his stake in the Italian private television company Mediaset, but said that it did not go […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ press release: European and Global Journalists Back Fight for Editorial Independence at Leading Italian Daily The International Federation of Journalists today backed protests by journalists at Italy’s leading daily newspaper, Corriere Della Sera, over increasing editorial pressure from shareholders, including some of the country’s most powerful industrial conglomerates. […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 16 August 2004 police raids on the offices of the Milan-based weekly “Gente” and the Rome residence of journalist Gennaro De Stefano, calling the incidents a “serious attack on investigative journalism” and a violation of European human rights law. “These searches threaten the privacy of journalistic sources and contravene […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed a proposed amendment to Italy’s defamation law that would abolish prison sentences for libel, and has urged Parliament to pass the new text as soon as possible so that judges will be able to review the cases of journalists who have already been given prison terms. The proposed reform was […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 5 May 2004, journalist Fabrizio Gatti, a reporter with the daily “Corriere della Sera”, was given a suspended 20-day prison sentence for falsifying his identity during an investigation into conditions at a refugee centre. The journalist plans to appeal the verdict. RSF has denounced the severity of the sentence as a heavy […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed support for the Italian Parliament’s investigation into the murder of Ilaria Alpi, a reporter for the Italian state-run television station RAI 3, and Slovenian cameraman Miran Hrovatin in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 20 March 1994. “These unpunished killings are a stain on the history of press freedom,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 24 February 2004, a court in Trieste, northeastern Italy, sentenced Massimiliano Melilli to 18 months in prison and ordered him to pay a 100,000 euro (approx. US$124,400) fine for “defamation”. Melilli formerly worked as a journalist for the local weekly “Il Meridiano”. In a letter to Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, RSF strongly […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the violation of journalists’ right to protect their sources following the police search of the homes and offices of two journalists. The police searches targeted Massimo Martinelli, of the daily “Il Messaggero”, and Fiorenza Sarzanini, of the daily “Corriere della Sera”, in Rome. They were ordered by the Prosecutor’s Office […]