Italy: Urgent appeal for defamation reform

Rome: Article 19 submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe concerning the execution of judgements in the cases Belpietro, Sallusti, Magosso and Brindani group v. Italy.

In these cases, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) found violation of the right to freedom of expression due to their criminal convictions for defamation. However, the Italian government is yet to take adequate steps to address the problems that led to the Court’s decision in these cases and fully abolish criminal defamation provisions. In the submission, ARTICLE 19 provides updates on the most relevant developments concerning defamation in Italy and comments on the Government of Italy’s action plan concerning general measures.

The applicants in this group of cases included journalists and directors of daily newspapers who faced criminal convictions for their reporting or failure to control the content of articles written in their outlets. The Court held that the imposition of a prison sentence, even if suspended, or of a criminal fine, constitutes a disproportionate interference with the applicants’ freedom of expression. Despite these rulings, the Italian government has not submitted an updated action plan since 2015 for the Belpietro case or any communication regarding the execution of these judgments.

In the submission, ARTICLE 19 highlights that:

The Italian government failed to amend domestic legislation on defamation in line with the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights;

The proposed defamation reform (so-called the Balboni Bill) is very problematic from human rights perspective as it expands the scope of criminal sanctions for defamation; and

Civil defamation is still being misused to silence and threaten independent journalism in Italy, combined with widespread cases of strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs).

ARTICLE 19 urges the Italian government to repeal criminal defamation and to withdraw the problematic proposed Balboni Bill.Instead, it must undertake a comprehensive reform of defamation laws to bring them in line with international and European free expression standards, including the decisions of the European Court against Italy.