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.
I know, the Repos are so kind, caring, and want the best for all humanity.
Uhhh, I have never met a bigger bunch of hypocritical haters than Republicans. Here is just one headline from today…
Johnson warns GOP will defy Dems’ possible new nominee. Now why would Johnson threaten this? He is such a kind person, following the teaching of Jesus. NOT. Oh wait, Johnson wants to follow Jesus teachings and help the poor, the immigrant, the prisoner. NOT, Repos are disgusting pieces of human flesh with not a bit of kindness left in their meager brains. When Johnson shows up at the pearly gates I have no doubt Peter will say, and who exactly are you? You did what in your life to help humanity? Uhhhh, sorry, no place for you behind these gates, step aside and let that poor immigrant in that you spat on.
Uhhh, I have never met a bigger bunch of hypocritical haters than Republicans.
Only a hypocritical Soviet Democrat Marxist Useful Idiot would attempt that claim, Lyin’ Like A Proud Biden. We’ve been feeling and living your hatred for Republicans ever since Bolshevik Barack was inaugurated, years before you started using Trump as your excuse.
NOT, Repos are disgusting pieces of human flesh with not a bit of kindness left in their meager brains.
Unlike that model of devout Catholicism: President Daddy-Daughter Inappropriate Sex Showers. The lifelong racist that began his career flexing and posing beside his fellow Democrat Kluxxers, whining to Americans he didn’t want his children to have to go to jungle bunny schools. The devout Catholic pushing for elective birth control abortions right up to the minute of birth.
let that poor immigrant in that you spat on.
Those MS13 drug cartel Illegal Alien Guest Democrat Voters are NOT immigrants – they are criminals.
But you hypocritical haters of law abiding immigrants must always attempt to change the language to pursue your evil.
It is tragic that the incessant, insipid whining sounds that emanate from the pie holes of spoiled brats (who would be better seen than heard) at a million decibels, can interfere with the productivity of the minds of adults. The parents of these children should be stuffed into plastic shredders. Children are the greatest obstacles to human progress because the adult problem-solvers cannot hear themselves think about possible solutions.
It’s always struck me that those who wish to curtail or otherwise short-circuit free speech are, among other things, towering narcissists. The idea that they could possibly be mistaken never seems to occur to them. And because they alone see ‘the truth’ in all its self-evident entirety, there is never any need for actual debate. These folks are among the most close-minded, self-righteous and unintellectual individuals in the land. They are the actual ‘enemies of democracy.’
Corey Comperatore v USSS
Wrongful Death, Gross Dereliction and Negligence
$100 Million
ANONYMOUS 10:56am
I would think you have a good case. They were incompetent and should have no immunity. Or whoever laid out the not so secure SECURITY PLAN.
Italian censorship coming to America thanks to the Democratic party. And just think Jonathan, all to “save democracy”……
Giorgia needn’t be ashamed of her body. She’s a cute little package with impeccable style.
Something must’ve been lost in translation. To say someone has four feet is tantamount to calling them an animal. The reporter is either blind or a Gypsy.
I’d do her
The subtleness of the messaging by MEDIA is astounding. This morning, I watched Martha Raddatz interrupting and cutting off both Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as Joe Manchin, when something was about to be said that she didn’t want to hear, or was contrary to the message she wanted America to hear. It is this filtrated messaging, often done by surrogates, that is most disturbing. I hope that we are not an ignorant populace.
One thing that increasingly comes into focus is not only that anti-free-speech, censorship and criticism is coming from one side, -but also, the fact that most of the objectionable speech from that same side is coming from proxies/surrogates, particularly the MEDIA, late-night comedians, and infiltrates-even on this blog.
Even the labeling is subtle. Every day, we hear about one side as “far-right or “right-wing” or “far right wing.” When was the last time we heard the media call out the other side as “far-left?” Instead, the other side is more palatably referred to as “progressives” or “liberals.”
Lin,
We are an ignorant populace. Well, half of us are. Those are the ones who are shocked that Joe Biden is not mentally fit for the office. They just ignorantly believed what the Biden admin told them, what the DNC told them, what MSM told them. Any suggestion of otherwise was decried as a “right wing conspiracy theory!!” Now that the curtain has been torn down for all to see, what us sane and normal people have been saying since 2020, they are in shock and angry they have been duped all this time. What they are really angry about, if they will even admit it to themselves, is they allowed themselves to be duped. And some continue to be duped.
^^Too ignorant to look up the statistics.
In 2022, 43% of U.S. adults identified as independents, 27% as Republicans and 27% as Democrats.
That only around a fourth, not half.
-Not trying to be smart-alecky, but please note (next time, before you respond to a comment) that neither Upstate nor I labeled persons as “Republicans,” “Democrats,” or “Independents.”
-Ergo, “half” of of Republicans and half of Democrats and half of Independents may well be included in Upstate Farmer’s “half.”
Thank you Lin!
As always, puts them in their place in short concise manner!
Lin-first-they need to learn how to read and then second-they need experience to give meaning to what they read and then 3rd-judgment to try to do something with what reading and experience have taught them. That 3rd part is a real stumbling block for “half” of the people.
GEB: !
Lin, who was he talking about if not the Dems?
Upstate, who were the ‘those, they, them’, then?
It’s doubtful you meant 1/2 of Repubs were ‘duped’ about Biden’s health.
welcome to Globalist FASCISM!
I don’t believe Meloni is a left winger? Could it be those in Europe who have pushed for silencing discourse are now being bitten by the pet snake they’ve fed?
This is hardly a surprise in Europe. Europe never bought in to the American Revolution and what it brought with it. The UK never really changed its spots except to increase the mandate of voting to women and Catholics and then other minorities but the full essence of the parliamentary state has remained the same. Their security laws and Official Secrets Act are far harsher than anything in the US and they have remained so. The UK and Europe totally missed the idea of separation of powers and an independent judiciary. They also, for the most part, never understood the real idea of federalism and how the sovereign states are extremely powerful political entities and are a further check on the central government.
The UK never sat down and wrote a real constitution and they constantly end up doing things we would never do in our federal republic. The rest of Europe is almost the same. Constitutions in some are written but can be changed when the wind changes. The whole idea of a Constitution is permanence with changes written when the MASS of the people agrees it’s time to change, and not just a whim.
The European Union was constructed as a permanent administrative state to keep those unwashed masses away from the REAL levers of power. Elitist to the core. The EU leaders never leave they just play musical chairs.
Occasionally other states get the real idea of our process but most do not.
Frankly Australia and New Zealand are far closer to us in tenor and our freedoms than the UK and Europe. Australia melded a federal republic with a House of Representatives and Senate, each with separate powers but also a parliamentary systems based on the majority in the House. New Zealand is different and more like a Liberal northeastern state than a country and I would not want to live there.
Australia’s sovereign is the King of England, but that will likely end in the next few years. There are many republicans in Australia who want the bond severed from the House of Windsor but they still loved Elizabeth 2. She’s gone now.
My experience (born 1948) is that the democrats started to want our republic more like Europe since the 1920’s. You also have to remember that Woodrow Wilson was a progressive democrat and cared nothing for the Constitution and FDR was Asst Secy Of the Navy under Wilson and was a progressive also. That’s why his new deal clashed so much with the Supreme Court. He eventually replaced the court over time but a backlash in the 1938 elections left the House and Senate in the control of conservative Democrats and Republicans and that muted Roosevelt but World War 2 saved him politically. But the administrative state we have now is his creation. Truman tried to seize the railroads and place them under permanent federal control. Supreme Court Stopped that.
Obama did almost everything in his power to circumvent the constitution but Kerry 4 years before wanted to do the same thing. So Democrats, especially progressives, don’t like the constraints of the constitution and those pesky little rights we live by.
Progressives are just like snakes in Eden.
@GEB
Excellent, there’s nothing more to say. 👍🏼 May we take it as an object lesson. Alas, though, a great many people in this country are ignorant of what you’ve written to the point that they wouldn’t notice anything was amiss until it was much too late. As ever, the stalwart few must carry the rest, and likely to little fanfare.
“So Democrats, especially progressives, don’t like the constraints of the constitution and those pesky little rights we live by.
Progressives are just like snakes in Eden.”
True. But you seem to have missed the point of JT’s post.
Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, is a Christian conservative. Since 2020, she has been president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party. She and her party are the censors here.
So who in this case are the “snakes in Eden”?
You missed GEB’s point that Europeans are elitist and not much like Americans.
Sam-you miss the point. Abridging the right of free speech is wrong whether you are right or left. It does not matter. Right now the progressives are the main threat here and in Europe are the main culprits but that does not give the right wing free rein to do the same thing. Try to keep up and widen your lens before you get hit by something outside of your tunnel vision.
“Sam-you miss the point. Abridging the right of free speech is wrong whether you are right or left.”
Perhaps next time you can make your point — in the original comment. If you can find space in that scattershot, while still trying to impress others with your faux erudition.
Sam-6:07 PM
Well we have a lot of people here who have trouble stringing things together and making sense of how we got here and you are one of them. History is a long process that brings us to the present point. History did not just start 20 yrs ago but your writing suggests that is about as far back as your thought process goes. Since JT brought up Italy that means we went outside the USA and there is a lot out there and useful to know and not just the American view.
veritas molli bracchio tractor – anguis in herbas
“Constitutions in some are written but can be changed when the wind changes. The whole idea of a Constitution is permanence with changes written when the MASS of the people agrees it’s time to change, and not just a whim.”
Perfect. That is why one should examine the Constitution in an originalist or textual manner. The founders provided a method of change: amending the Constitution.
Very good comment!!!!
Professor Turley: When Dennis McIntyre shows up today to post his litany of lies – starting with the inevitable Cheap Fake salutation”Jonathan:” – ask him why his boss The Big Guy, created a fake Trump website to feed McIntyre the lies he and Gigi regurgitate on command here daily:
https://www.TrumpProject2025.com/
The Big Guy has created a Cheap Fake Biden lie that is essentially Russia Dossier v.2.01 The 2016 version updated and rewritten for 2024. Here’s one Coles Notes dissection of this Cheap Fake Biden Project2025 website That Dennis McIntyre and Gigi draw their lies from:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jul/16/bidens-bogus-trump-website-spews-election-lies-mis/
Biden’s FBI is announcing they’re seizing fake political election websites belonging to Russians.
Cheap Fake Dennis McIntyre must have an explanation about why his FBI isn’t seizing The Big Guy’s fake political election websites at the same time.
Giulia Cortese, Roberto Saviano, violated the Cardinal Rule, They named, “She who shall not be named”
Heaven forbid you named the High Priestess of the White She Devils (HRC) – I pray for you Jonathan.
The Milan’ Court is just the Tip of a Internet Judical System. The Diploma Mills will be pumping out IJD (Internet Juris Doctor) degrees like toilet paper.
Michael Cohen will be one of the fist to get one – fer sur.
Meantime we can endure the wrath of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on Open-Mouth/Open-Source Free Speech issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Magic#Department_of_Magical_Law_Enforcement
It still rings true
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
…and in the temple they bought and sold…
Are you saying that you would have preferred that I not express myself so freely?
Americans seem to forget that our Constitution only applies to the United States, not the rest of the world. What happens in Italy is the problems of Italians. They should revolt and throw her out.
The problem in the United States is that Communists took over the Democratic Party starting during the New Deal and continuing through the Sixties. They talked about free speech but only applied it to themselves. If you really want free speech, don’t vote for Democrats.
Semcgowanjr,
Well said and I agree.
The Democrats need to toss out the loonies from their party and get back to sanity.
@Upstate Farmer Re: “The Democrats need to toss out the loonies from their party….” Seriously!?!?!? You should speak to some of my neighbors. The one’s who declare, at their card tables, ‘We don’t talk politics’. The loonies ARE the party. The rest are hapless ‘Never Trumpers, marching in step . They pontificate while protected inside their their security gates and their well funded retirement plans. The state of the nation which beleaguers so many never touches them.
zzdoc1,
I tend to think the loonies are the leftist progressives of the Democrat party.
The sane, normal ones, like Bill Maher, Elon Musk, the good professor and my own sister would like to throw the loonies out. My sister has written to the Biden campaign and the DNC that if dont get off this toxic leftist wokeism, she is not donating any money to them and will vote third party. After the Biden debate debacle, she is not voting for Biden at all.
I think she is undecided about if it were Harris. But Friday, Harris took a call with some 300 Democrat donors. The call did not go well, with one on a hot mic saying the meeting was “ludicrous.”
How marvelous!
This (and immediate prior comments), brings to mind a cartoon I saw.
Picture, if you will, a tearfully distraught young woman crying:
“OUR DEMOCRAT MAYOR AND GOVERNOR ARE DESTROYING MY STATE
I’M DONE. NEXT TIME I’M VOTING FOR A DIFFERENT DEMOCRAT”
UpstateFarmer-hate to say this but your sister has some “learning” to do. She should have already quit the donations and voting for a 3rd party with no hope is a waste of time and effort. My older sister is similar but she still sticks with loonies-no matter what they say and do. My younger sister is an independent. Was an RN but then spent about 30 years with ATF (not as a nurse). She is the less serious one but enjoys life a lot more than her older siblings. But just as smart and a lot of fun
“Holy ‘If ever I should forget thee, Mussolini’, Batman!!”
UK TikToker gets arrested in her own home for ‘malicious communications’ against the LGBTQ community.
“You have sent a series of social media posts that are grossly offensive to people of protected characteristics…LGBTQ.”
Dictators can have the same thing done to people who offend them. If it quacks like a dictator, and walks like a dictator, it’s a dictator.
Being a member of a particular regime can be considered a protected characteristic.
WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF EVIDENT- ———-
If freedom of expression is worth protecting, then why doesn’t Turley fly to Italy with a gun and shoot all of those icky government people who are a threat to it. Surely feedom of expression is worth more than the lives of these oppressors.
Low IQ commenter completely missed the point of Turley’s column.
You don’t know?
Turley’s cant fly.
If his arms get tired, he can take rests along the way.
You are ridiculous with this comment and the person is right to talk about your low IQ! You mock the issue of free speech but is a serious one. Go back in history of only the last 5o years and see what the consequences of the loss and protection of this law will do. You especially will suffer!
The speech most concerning recently is the freedom of persuasion as in marketing, advertising and the commerce of power.
Yes, I listened to an Ozzy Osbourne record once and it persuaded me to blow my head off with a shot gun.
Anonymous 10:50 AM-Ozzy Osbourne is not a role model for “sanity” and I would never pay money for any of his “music”
Uh, because he is not an Italian citizen. That’s a problem for the people of Italy to resolve.
So Americans shouldn’t have resolved the problem of Mussolini?
Oh, I don’t know. It’s a pity we can’t ask the teenage Americans who died in Italy.
Idiot