Florence. Judicial search of a reporter and his editorial office. Protest of Ossigeno

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These invasive initiatives are inconsistent with the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, as the Constitutional Court has stated 

OSSIGENO – August 6^th 2024 – The search of the home of the journalist Simone Innocenti and the editorial offices of the Corriere Fiorentino carried out on July 31^st  2024 by order of the Florence prosecutor’s office, appears to be in stark contrast with the rulings of the European Court of Strasbourg and the Constitutional Court that have long established the protection of journalists’ sources. Alberto Spampinato, president of “Ossigeno per l’informazione” called attention to this incongruity. His opinion was echoed  by the president of the Tuscan Press Association, Sandro Bennucci, who shared it with other leaders of the journalists’ union. This incongruity was also expressed in a parliamentary question addressed to the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio by the Democratic Party senators Dario Parrini and Valter Verini and in a question presented by the vice-president of the European Parliament Pina Picierno and signed by numerous European parliamentarians of the Democratic Party.

OSSIGENO’ OBJECTIONS – The president of Ossigeno, the observatory which monitors  the threats and intimidations to Italian journalists has emphasised that since  2003, the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, with the Goodwin, Roemen and Tillack judgements, has condemned search and seizure operations in editorial offices as they violate the right of journalists to the confidentiality of their trusted sources. The member  states of the European Union are required to conform to the interpretations that the Strasbourg Court gives of the norms of the European Convention on Human Rights, as reiterated by the Italian Constitutional Court with ruling 39 of 2008.

For its part, Ossigeno per l’informazione has repeatedly restated  that the professional secrecy of journalists deserves greater respect and that the text of article 200 of the Italian criminal procedure code that protects it requires reformulation. The text should clearly state that, as happens for other categories, it is not subordinated to superior claims of judicial investigation. Ossigeno also believes that, in the face of such repeated judicial incursions into the editorial offices and homes of journalists, the training schools of magistrates should devote more attention to the knowledge of the prerogatives of journalists.

The Tuscan Press Association (AST), in this regard, queried why the chief prosecutor, Filippo Spiezia, whose previous position was that of the member for Italy at Eurojust, did not take into account, in the case of Corriere Fiorentino, the pronouncements of the ECHR and the Constitutional Court.

THE SOLIDARITY – The Democratic Party senators Dario Parrini and Walter Verini ”expressed great concern about what happened” in Florence where Simone Innocenti, a journalist for Corriere Fiorentino, was the subject of an investigation by the local prosecutor’s office for complicity with one or more public officials in revealing and using official secrets with reference to an article that appeared on May 17^th about the case of the 25-year-old student of the Marescialli and Brigadieri School of Florence who committed suicide on April 22^nd. Even more worrying was the search and seizure operation by the same prosecutor’s office on the editorial offices of Corriere Fiorentino and Innocenti’s  home. AS