Italy PM Meloni takes Italian anti-mafia journalist to trial
Rome, The Gulf Observer: Italian anti-mafia journalist Roberto Saviano stands trial this week on defamation charges brought by Giorgia Meloni, now Italy’s prime minister, for a 2020 outburst criticising her stance on migrants.
Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy was at the time a small opposition party, but took office last month after a sweeping election victory driven in part by its promise to stop the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.
Meloni will take Italian anti-mafia journalist Saviano to trial
Saviano, who is best known for his international mafia bestseller “Gomorrah” faces up to three years in prison if convicted in the trial, which opens on Tuesday.
The 43-year-old told media that it was an “unequal confrontation, decidedly grotesque,” while press freedom groups warned it sent a “chilling message” to journalists.
Watchdogs say such trials are symbolic of a culture in Italy in which public figures — often politicians — intimidate reporters with repeated lawsuits, threatening the erosion of a free and independent press.
Italy ranked 58th in the 2022 world press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders, the lowest level in western Europe.
