Italy

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have called on Ukrainian authorities to carry out a detailed investigation into the circumstances of the death of Italian photojournalist, Andrea Rocchelli, and Russian interpreter, Andrey Mironov, who were killed in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, 24 May. According to reports, Rocchelli and Mironov...

Iranian reporter Hamid Massouminejad is no longer under house arrest in Milan. Mohammadali Hosseini, Iran's ambassador to Italy, told the Iranian Students News Agenc (ISNA) that the Milan prosecutor signed the order of release which was also approved by the court interrogator on Monday. Hosseini announced that this did not mean that the file has been closed by described it as a "positive step"...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition backed down on a controversial wiretaps bill Thursday as its deputies approved a watered-down version in a parliamentary committee vote, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. The initial bill would have banned the publication of transcripts in the media and called for up to two years in jail and fines of up to 464,700 euros (600...

Silvio Berlusconi is sending out a message as he and his allies fall victim to a string of embarrassing phone call leaks: Stop listening. The Italian premier is pressing a bill to limit the use of investigative wiretaps that have been the source of numerous scandals, but there is fierce opposition to curbing official eavesdropping in one of the world's most wiretapped nations. Magistrates warn the

A controversial law curbing wiretaps and imposing heavy fines on journalists who publish leaked ‘wiretap’ material was passed recently by the Italian Senate. The president of the Italian Senate announced that the much-debated wiretap law had been approved by the Senate with 164 votes in favour. Of a total 323 senators, only 189 were in the room when the bill was voted on. Representatives of the...

The board of governors of the state-owned broadcaster RAI has decided to suspend all political discussion programmes on its three TV stations during the one-month run-up to regional elections scheduled for March 28 and 29, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The reason given was the difficulty of ensuring “equality of treatment.” It is extraordinary that RAI should be backing away from...

The Italian editor whose newspaper is being sued for defamation by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday likened the situation to attacks on the American press during the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon. “Like the American journalists, our journalists were doing their work and were publishing information that had to be published,” said...

The editor of a prominent Catholic newspaper that demanded Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi answer questions about a sex scandal resigned Thursday, saying he and his family were hurt by an attack on his reputation from a Berlusconi family newspaper, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The resignation highlighted Berlusconi's souring ties with the church, which objects to the Italian...

There has been a wave of attacks since the beginning of the month on Italian journalists working in Rome, in what seems to be a new campaign of intimidation by far-right groups. A TV crew from state-owned RAI-1’s news programme, TG1, was harassed on Sunday while doing a report in the Rome suburb of Il Trullo about racist attacks on immigrants by young Italians. The report followed the arrests of...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has expressed its solidarity with staff and unions of Italian TV Channel La7 who are facing an unprecedented wave of lay-offs. EFJ, the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), called on Italian lawmakers to condemn the cutbacks which will affect more than a quarter of the workforce. "We urge the Italian Parliament, which on...