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Anti-Free Speech Laws Hit New Heights in Italy: Reporter Fined for “Body Shaming” Prime Minister Meloni

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I have long been critical of the erosion of free speech in Italy and other Western European countries, including the use of criminal libel laws against critics of the police or government. This week a Milan court has ordered a journalist to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of 5,000 euros ($5,465) for making fun of her in a social media post. Giulia Cortese was also given a suspended fine of 1,200 euros for a joke on X. It is the latest absurd example of the expanding crackdown on free speech.

In my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how this anti-free speech wave from Europe has finally reached our shores. The rapid loss of free speech in countries like Italy, France, Germany, and Great Britain should be a wake-up call for all Americans to protect this “indispensable right.”

There are many in the United States, including Hillary Clinton, who want to replicate the anti-free speech laws in the United States.

This is a prototypical example of how vague laws are being used to crack down on everyone from journalists to politicians to even comedians.

Cortese posted a comment on Twitter in Oct. 2021 about Meloni’s height. She objected to the government’s attack on “freedom of expression and journalistic dissent.”

Cortese published a mocked-up photo of Meloni with a picture of the late fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the background. As she clashed with the Prime Minister, she then later added “you don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2 metres (4 feet) tall. I can’t even see you.”

Notably, Meloni supported the legal action despite the fact that she is part of a party long in the minority and threatened by such laws. She also successfully sued best-selling author Roberto Saviano after he insulted her on television in 2021 over her position on illegal immigration.

This is the slippery slope that our own country could soon find itself on if many politicians and pundits have their way. Just recently, the New York Times published another anti-speech diatribe titled “The First Amendment is Out of Control.”

It is, of course, no easy task to convince a free people to give up a core part of identity and liberty. You have to make them afraid. Very afraid.

Anti-free speech books have been heralded in the media. University of Michigan Law Professor and MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade has written how dangerous free speech is for the nation. Her book, “Attack from Within,” describes how free speech is what she calls the “Achilles Heel” of America.

There is even a movement afoot to rewrite the First Amendment through an amendment. George Washington University Law School Professor Mary Anne Franks believes that the First Amendment is “aggressively individualistic” and needs to be rewritten to “redo” the work of the Framers. She wants the language change to balance your right to speak against the interests of “equity.”

Meloni’s use of these laws to silence critics is disgraceful. At the same time, the media has been largely supportive of these laws in targeting others with dissenting political and religious views. The Cortese case shows how many in journalism and academia remain silent on the rights of others until they are themselves threatened by the growing intolerance for opposing views.

As the anti-free speech movement literally reaches new heights in countries like Italy, Americans should take note. This remains an existential fight over a right that defines us all. That is the long and short of it.

 

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