Italy: Criminal defamation charges against writer Roberto Saviano must be dropped
Photo credits: Mattia Venturi
31 January: The Italian authorities should drop all criminal defamation charges against writer, journalist, and PEN award winner Roberto Saviano, PEN International said today, ahead of the start of his trial in Rome tomorrow. Saviano is being sued by Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, and faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
On 20 March 2019, Roberto Saviano announced that he had been summoned to stand trial on charges of defaming Matteo Salvini – then Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister – over a speech that described him as ‘Ministro della Mala Vita’ (Minister of the Underworld), a phrase borrowed from early 20th-century anti-fascist Gaetano Salvemini. Forced into exile by Mussolini’s fascist regime, with all his assets confiscated, Salvemini had accused then Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti of exploiting voters for political gains, while engaging with individuals with strong ties to criminal organisations. In his speech, Saviano accused Salvini of ignoring the mafia stranglehold on Italy in favour of stirring up resentment against immigrants. Salvini is suing Saviano under Article 595 of the Italian Penal Code, which carries up to three years in prison; he notably used the letterhead of the Interior Ministry for his lawsuit. The first hearing has been set for 1 February 2023. Previously in June 2018, Salvini threatened to remove Saviano’s police escort. Saviano has been living under constant police protection since October 2006, after receiving threats from the mafia following the publication of his bestseller Gomorrah.
In a separate case, Saviano faces up to three years in prison under Article 595 of the Italian Penal Code on charges of defaming Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s Prime Minister, over a speech that criticized the far-right leader after she said that NGO boats attempting to rescue refugees in the central Mediterranean should be sunk and migrants left adrift at sea. The trial opened on 15 November 2022 and was ongoing at the time of writing. In an open letter, PEN International’s President Burhan Sonmez urged Prime Minister Meloni to drop all criminal defamation charges against Saviano, stressing how ‘criminal defamation lawsuits exhaust their victims. They rob them of their time, of their money, of their vital energy. Crucially, they are punitive and can lead to self-censorship and discourage the investigative journalism that is so necessary in a healthy and functioning democracy.’ Salvini asked to join the criminal proceedings as a civil party seeking damages; his request was rejected. The next hearing has been set for 27 June 2023.
‘PEN International continues to stand with Roberto Saviano and calls for all criminal defamation charges against him to be dropped. That these two criminal defamation lawsuits were initiated by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Italy has a particularly chilling effect on free speech and is meant to intimidate not just Saviano, but anyone who dares to speak truth to power. We urge once again the Italian authorities to repeal all criminal defamation laws. No one should be criminalized, let alone prosecuted, for peacefully expressing their views’, said Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President.
Background information
Roberto Saviano, 43, is the author of Gomorrah, an international best seller that has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Other books include Beauty and the inferno (2009), La parola contro la camorra (2010); Come away with me (2011), ZeroZeroZero (2013), La paranza dei bambini (2016), Bacio feroce (2017), In mare non esistono taxi (2019), Gridalo (2020), Solo è il coraggio (2022). He wrote several screenplays and theatre scripts and regularly contributes to newspapers and magazines such as Il Corriere della Sera, Sette, Fanpage, The New York Times, Newsweek, El Diario, Die Zeit, The Guardian, and Le Monde. He is the Winner of the 2011 PEN/Pinter International Writer of Courage Award and of the 2019 Oxfam Novib/PEN International award for freedom of expression.
In December 2020, Saviano was asked on the political TV chat show Piazzapulita to comment on the death of a baby from Guinea following the sinking of a boat carrying migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Including in his remarks Matteo Salvini – who was recently appointed Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and who in a previous stint as Interior Minister notably introduced a decree imposing fines of up to €50,000 on NGO rescue boats bringing people to Italy – Saviano said: ‘I just want to say to Meloni, and Salvini, you bastards! How could you have?’. Giorgia Meloni, who had described NGO rescue boats as ‘traffickers’ that needed to be sunk, subsequently sued Saviano for defamation. A judge in Rome later ruled that he should be tried.
Italy’s Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, is also suing Saviano for a tweet in 2018 that criticized his appointment as head of the news programme TG2, at the Italian state-owned television channel Rai 2. Sangiuliano is seeking hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation. The case is ongoing.
Article 595 of the Italian Penal Code defines defamation as damage to the reputation of a person through communication with several persons and carries up to three years in prison. In 2020, Italy’s Constitutional Court urged Parliament to undergo a wide and comprehensive reform of the defamation legal framework – both criminal and civil. In June 2021, the Court however ruled that Article 595 of the Penal Code was compliant with the Constitution, as it allowed imprisonment in cases of ‘exceptional severity’.
PEN International opposes criminal defamation in all cases. For more information about PEN International’s campaign in support of Roberto Saviano, please click here.
For further details contact Aurélia Dondo at PEN International, Koops Mill, 162-164 Abbey Street, London, SE1 2AN, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7405 0338 Fax +44 (0) 20 7405 0339 e-mail: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org