Italy. Publishers not covering legal expenses. The Giordano Contu case

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The journalist was sued by an airline pilot. The media who published the article refused legal aid. Ossigeno will defend him in court covering defence’s costs

OSSIGENO 23^rd  October  2024 – The Legal Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione which, with the help of Media Defence, covers the defence costs of Italian journalists in difficulty due to legal actions deemed specious, (see here) , will defend in court the professional journalist Giordano Contu, collaborator with the aeronautical press agency Avionews. The journalist was sued by a pilot of the airline ITA Airways who believes he was defamed by a news item about him. Avionews did not offer to cover the journalist’s expenses even though the very first dispute would concern exactly the chief editor of the agency. Subsequently, the collaboration between the agency and the journalist was terminated.

The Legal Desk of Ossigeno, which operates in collaboration with Media Defence, has entrusted his defence to the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, coordinator of the Help Desk, believing that this case clearly represents one of the great difficulties faced by many Italian journalists.

INDEMNITY AND LEGAL ASSISTANCE – In Italy, many journalists are subjected to vexatious lawsuits and are forced to bear personally the related non-negligible legal costs that should be the responsibility of the publisher. If the content of one of its publications, endorsed by a chief editor appointed by the publisher, is contested it should be specified that the publisher in any case should bear the eventual costs of defending the author of the article. This, logically, should be standard practice but since this is often insufficient contractual obligations should be included in every employment contract and in the civil code. The issue is not new in Italy; it has been unresolved for some time and is increasingly inhibiting  due to precarious employment relationships, the low pay of journalists and the widespread use of frivolous lawsuits  against journalists.

The case of Giordano Contu demonstrates with a practical example how easily a publisher can avoid providing legal assistance and indemnity to a journalist  like Contu who, with demonstrable professionalism, wrote 25 pieces a day, including news and articles, both in Italian and English.

THE FACTS – On May 30^th 2022, Giordano Contu wrote in an article that a pilot of the airline ITA Airways, whose name he did not mention, had alarmed the company because he had not responded to calls from air traffic controllers for dozens of minutes. The prolonged silence had raised fears of a hijacking. Subsequently, the airline had fired the pilot for disciplinary reasons, accusing him of allegedly “falling asleep” at the controls. Then, in September 2023, the Labour Court ordered the pilot’s reinstatement because the dismissal procedures had not been respected by the company and also because the circumstance of falling asleep, which had always been denied by the pilot involved, had not been proven.

Giordano Contu was sued for initially reporting on the pilot’s alleged falling asleep, and in a subsequent article used instead the more neutral expression “he did not respond while he was at the controls”. The daily newspapers, “Corriere della Sera” and “la Repubblica”, had also used similar expressions. The aeronautical press agency’s refusal surprised Giordano Contu who had taken the support of the company he worked for granted. “In June 2024,” Contu explains, “the editorial director informed me that a defamation lawsuit had arrived because of one of my articles, that I had to appoint a criminal lawyer and that I would have to pay for it myself. I was shocked. How is this possible, I replied? A newspaper must protect its journalists! But there was nothing that could be done.” ASP