Italy: Writer Roberto Saviano found guilty of defaming Italian Prime Minister

Photo courtesy of Mattia Venturi

12 October: Today, Rome’s criminal court found Gomorrah author and PEN award winner Roberto Saviano guilty of defaming Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and ordered him to pay a fine. Saviano’s legal team said they would appeal. 

PEN International representatives Sabrina Tucci and Georgia Beeston attended the hearing to demonstrate solidarity with Saviano and fellow writers and journalists who are increasingly being targeted by vexatious lawsuits in Italy, and around the world. Their observations can be found on PEN International’s X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Responding to the news, PEN International President Burhan Sonmez said:

‘PEN International utterly condemns the sentencing of Roberto Saviano as an alarming setback for free speech. Today’s verdict highlights the urgent need for legal reforms to protect our voices. That the lawsuit was initiated by Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s Prime Minister, is of the utmost concern, and sends a dangerous warning to writers and journalists across the country that their words could see them on trial for years, financially burdened, emotionally damaged, and possibly sent to jail.

We must remember that Saviano is facing three years in prison in a separate criminal defamation case, brought by Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister.

Italy must urgently repeal all criminal defamation laws. We stand with Saviano and call for all remaining criminal defamation charges against him to be dropped.’

Additional information

Writer Roberto Saviano was found guilty of defaming Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s Prime Minister, under Article 595 of the Italian Penal Code, which carries up to three years in prison.  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 Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini – 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?’. Meloni, who had described NGO rescue boats as ‘traffickers’ that needed to be sunk, subsequently sued Saviano for defamation. The trial began on 15 November 2022.

In an open letter published on 8 November 2022, PEN International’s President Burhan Sonmez urged Meloni to drop all criminal defamation charges against Saviano, stressing that ‘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.’

In a separate case, Saviano faces up to three years in prison on charges of defaming Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime 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. The trial opened on 1 February 2023 and was ongoing at the time of writing.

PEN International opposed criminal defamation in all cases. In September 2023, the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International adopted a resolution on criminal defamation laws and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), which specifically called for all charges against Saviano to be dropped.

For more information about PEN International’s campaign in support of Roberto Saviano, please click here.

For further details contact Sabrina Tucci, Communications and Campaigns Manager, [email protected] and Aurélia Dondo, Head of Europe and Central Asia Region at PEN International: [email protected]