Presumption of innocence, right to be forgotten, defamation, and the right to report

Presumption of innocence, right to be forgotten, defamation: all the critical issues that put the right to report at risk. New regulations and initiatives to protect citizens.

Authors

Volume edited by the "Information and Justice" Working Group of the National Council of the Order of Journalists, composed of councilors Gianluca Amadori (coordinator), Riccardo Arena, Oreste Lo Pomo and Pierluigi Roesler Franz.

Rome, June 2024

This e-book aims to highlight a series of critical issues introduced by the most recent interventions of the Italian legislator on the presumption of innocence, the right to be forgotten and the protection of the dignity of citizens involved in investigations. Initiatives that put at risk the right of citizens to be fully and correctly informed.

In the relationship between professional information and justice, however, the main actors are not only journalists and the judiciary. There is a third subject that has more impact than the first two: it is the legislative power.

The analysis starts from the assumption that the evolution of the rules governing freedom of information should take place in the constant search for a balance between complementary rights: that of freedom of the press and that of the protection of the person.

Instead, the Italian legislator, according to the analysis, is increasingly restricting the perimeter allowed for judicial information and has taken this path with determination.

The danger is that we are faced with "a judicial chronicle without names, with increasingly vague and inaccurate accounts; with official communications disseminated with a delay of up to weeks by the prosecutors of the Republic, who decide at their discretion what citizens can or may not know; with the introduction of bans and the provision of increasingly heavy penalties for those who persist in wanting to inform citizens about what happens in the courthouses".

The electronic volume was created by the "Information and Justice" Working Group of the National Council of the Order of Journalists and provides a useful and valuable orientation tool for journalists and beyond.

The e-book is available in Italian.