Roberto SAVIANO

Writer, journalist, and PEN award winner Roberto Saviano remained on trial accused of defaming Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, in a speech in which Saviano accused Salvini of ignoring the mafia stranglehold on Italy in favour of stirring up resentment against immigrants. He faced up to three years in prison if convicted. The trial opened on 1 February 2023. In 2018, Salvini had threatened to remove Saviano’s police protection, in place since October 2006 after Saviano received threats from the mafia following the March 2006 publication of his bestseller Gomorrah.  

Previously, on 12 October 2023, Saviano was found guilty and fined for defaming Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after he criticised her 2020 speech in which she said that NGO boats attempting to rescue refugees in the central Mediterranean should be seized and sunk, and the migrants on board repatriated. He subsequently decided not to appeal (see Case Lists 2023/2024 and 2022).  

In July 2023, the government-appointed CEO of the public broadcaster Radiotelevision Italia (RAI), Roberto Sergio, announced that a TV show hosted by Saviano had been cancelled. The four-part show – Insider, Face to Face with Crime – notably explored the mafia’s influence on Italian politics and was scheduled to air in November 2023. Saviano condemned the decision as politically motivated. In May 2024, Sergio told the RAI Supervisory Committee that the recorded episodes would eventually be broadcast. Saviano attributed RAI’s reversal to sustained pressure by his viewers, civil society organisations and mafia victims’ relatives.   

In October 2024, Saviano took part in the Frankfurt book fair despite being excluded from the official delegation representing Italy, the guest of honour. Forty-one Italian writers had signed a letter of protest in the lead up to the fair, denouncing the decision to exclude Saviano as emblematic of the Italian authorities’ pervasive crackdown on artistic freedom 

Roberto Saviano, born on 22 September 1979, is the author of Gomorrah, an international bestseller that has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Other books include La bellezza e l’inferno (Beauty and the inferno) (2009); Vieni via con me (Come away with me) (2011), ZeroZeroZero (2013), La paranza dei bambini (The children’s boat) (2016), In mare non esistono taxi (There are no taxis at sea) (2019), Gridalo (Shout it) (2020), Solo è il coraggio (Only courage) (2022). He has written several screenplays and theatre scripts and regularly contributes to newspapers and magazines.