Italy / Europe & Central Asia

  

EU underscores support of free expression, but slights access to information

A new document on freedom of expression and opinion, adopted May 12 by the 28 foreign ministers of the European Union, presses nearly all the right buttons. Drawing its inspiration from international human rights norms as well as from the EU’s treaties and its charter of fundamental rights, the document reaffirms the role of freedom…

Read More ›

International journalist and his fixer killed in Ukraine

New York, May 27, 2014–On Saturday, Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter and fixer, Andrei Mironov, were killed in mortar fire outside the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to regional and international press reports. A French photojournalist, William Roguelon, was also wounded in the attack, reports said. 

Read More ›

Attacks on the Press in 2013: Italy

In 2013, at least four journalists were convicted of libel in Italy, one of the few European Union states where defamation is still a criminal offense. In May, a Milan magistrate found three journalists guilty of libel and sentenced them to prison. In a separate case, a 79-year-old editor was sentenced to house arrest in…

Read More ›

Two French journalists reported missing in Syria

New York, June 7, 2013–Two French journalists covering the Syrian conflict have been reported missing by their employer, according to news reports. The news comes amid reports that two other international journalists missing in Syria since April are alive.

Read More ›

With Panorama jail sentences, Italy’s libel law under fire

“Incredible,” “staggering,” “enormous,” “out of time”–the expressions of outrage have been flying in Italy since a Milan magistrate sentenced to prison three journalists for the weekly magazine Panorama. On May 24, Andrea Marcenaro and Riccardo Arena were each condemned to a one-year jail term for a 2010 article discussing Palermo magistrate Francesco Messineo’s alleged family…

Read More ›

European outlets report journalists missing in Syria

New York, April 30, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the well-being of two European journalists who went missing in western Syria three weeks ago. News reports identified the journalists as Domenico Quirico, a veteran reporter for the Italian daily La Stampa, and Pierre Piccinin da Prata, a Belgian academic and freelance…

Read More ›

Anarchists and suspected mafia target Italian media

The last several months in Italy have seen a few disquieting attacks against independent media and an investigative reporter. In one case, the widely distributed independent newspaper La Stampa received an explosive device in the mail.  The Federazione Anarchica Informale/Fronte Rivoluzionario, an anarchist organization, claimed responsibility and ominously noted that La Stampa was just one…

Read More ›

Abducted Italian journalists reported freed in Syria

The Italian Foreign Minister announced in a statement on April 13, 2013, that four Italian journalists abducted in northern Syria on April 4, 2013, had been released. News accounts reported that the journalists were believed to have been held for more than a week by the rebel group, Jabhat Al-Nusra, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda,…

Read More ›

Alessandro Sallusti (AP/Luca Bruno)

Editor sentenced to prison for libel in Italy

Brussels, September 28, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the criminal defamation conviction and 14-month prison sentence handed to Alessandro Sallusti, editor-in-chief of the Milan-based daily Il Giornale, and calls on Italian authorities to reform the country’s defamation laws. On Wednesday, the Fifth Chamber of the Cassation Court, Italy’s highest, upheld an earlier guilty verdict…

Read More ›

Council of Europe foreign ministers call for libel reform

Trickling back from the summer recess, European press freedom advocates and media lawyers are taking stock of facts and statements that went underreported during the holiday lull. And libel reform stands on top of the pile.  

Read More ›