ROME - Italian journalists were on strike on Saturday in protest at a draft law banning the publication of transcripts and wiretapped conversations being used in judicial enquiries.
The bill would ban the use of any court document until a case has come to trial and provides for heavy fines of tens of thousands of euros (dollars) for journalists breaking the law.
It has already been passed on a first reading by both the left- and right-wing deputies in Italy’s lower house.
The FNSI union says the bill is an attack on media freedoms. It has called on newspaper journalists not to work on Saturday and for Sunday editions not to appear. Right-wing media were expected to ignore the call.
Reporters from news agencies and websites were called upon to stop work for 24 hours from Saturday at 0500 GMT, and their colleagues in radio and television from 0400 GMT.
The publication in the press of whole pages of transcripts from wiretaps, sometimes involving leading figures, is common in Italy.
