Two Italian journalists have been sentenced to four months in prison and fined 15,000 Euros (11,700 GBP) for libel. Orfeo Donatini and Tiziano Marson, of newspaper Alto Adige, were convicted in June of alleging in a 2008 article that local politician Sven Knoll had taken part in a neo-Nazi summit. The claim was based on a police report and appeared in weekly magazine L’Espresso. Knoll lodged a criminal defamation complaint, and although the journalists were acquitted, the case was reviewed by the court of cassation and referred back to the Bolzano city tribunal. In a statement, press freedom organisation Article 19 said criminal defamation provisions in Italy’s Penal Code were “incompatible” with international standards of freedom of expression.
NEWS
Italy: Two journalists jailed for libel
Two Italian journalists have been sentenced to four months in prison and fined 15,000 Euros (11,700 GBP) for libel. Orfeo Donatini and Tiziano Marson, of newspaper Alto Adige, were convicted in June of alleging in a 2008 article that local politician Sven Knoll had taken part in a neo-Nazi summit. The claim was based on a police […]
By Marta Cooper
09 Aug 12
READ MORE
-
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “The people of Belarus are showing the dictator that they want him gone”
Following January's sham election, political activists and journalists willing to challenge Aliaksandr Lukashenka face prison, exile or worse – but...
-
Joe Mulhall, Solá Akingbolá and Hanna Komar champion silenced musicians
Index on Censorship launches the latest issue of its magazine with a powerful night of poetry and music
-
The war on drill
The police are disproportionately censoring and criminalising music by young Black men, with drill at the forefront
-
Liam Payne’s death signals an epidemic of silence in the music industry
While the future looks brighter, the mental health of artists has long been neglected