E io ti querelo. Una storia della libertà di espressione in dieci processi

The book opens with a memorable line: "Good morning, lawyer. This is Oriana Fallaci. I've been sued for defamation, and colleagues at Corriere told me to contact you." It is an ordinary day in the professional life of Caterina Malavenda, an attorney who has spent decades serving as primary legal counsel for major Italian journalists and media organizations, defending them against defamation lawsuits and freedom of speech challenges while safeguarding journalistic sources.
From these early steps in the Milan of the 1980s, as a young lawyer who had moved north from southern Italy, Malavenda guides readers through the pivotal moments of a remarkable career. Over the years, she encountered masters of investigative journalism, iconic figures of Italian television, and some of the most influential editors in the country's publishing history.
At the heart of the book are ten specific cases involving high-profile defendants: from Fallaci herself - the celebrated war correspondent and interviewer whose combative style made her a frequent target - to photographer Oliviero Toscani, known for his provocative advertising campaigns, as well as journalists Michele Santoro, Massimo Fini, and Francesco Merlo. Each case unfolds with its own rhythm and its own cast of characters: every hearing takes its course, every witness presents unexpected difficulties, and every document lends itself to more than one interpretation.
Beyond the individual stories, the ten cases double as a guided tour through some of Italy's defining journalistic and judicial moments of the last forty years, a cross-section of the country's judicial reporting that reads as an unflinching assessment of the health of its democracy. Malavenda shows, case by case, how lawsuits are deployed as weapons to block inconvenient investigations and intimidate those whose work proves troublesome to the powerful. As she puts it, even in a defamation trial “a journalist can struggle to escape unscathed, even when the reporting was accurate and the work well done". Between victories and disappointments, the book makes a passionate argument for the irreplaceable role of journalists in democratic life. Flawed as they may be, she contends, it is hard to imagine society functioning without them.