Fake news: Fortune magazine Italy writes that defamation is no longer a criminal offence

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Hurray! But the news gleaned from a Roman lawyer does not correspond with parliamentary acts or the Official Gazette

The magazine Fortune Italy publishes an article on how much is can cost – between sentences and monetary penalties – to defame a person, above all a public figure. In the article there is a section which contains news, big news: the Italian parliament has made simple defamation no longer a criminal offence but not defamation in print.

We were unaware of this very relevant development in the penal code nor was any journalist. After conducting an in-depth search of parliamentary acts and the penal code we found no confirmation of this. And if it were fake news?

In any case to be quite clear we reproduce below the unedited section from Fortune Italy which claims to have consulted a Roman lawyer.

“Defamation is an offence covered and punished by article 595 of the penal code which consists in damaging a person’s reputation and publicising it. Simple defamation has been recently made no longer a criminal offence even if there are subsequent civil consequences such as compensation.”

IF (wt)