Italy: Blogger sued for criticism of the designers of a flooded neighbourhood

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Why the Legal Desk of Ossigeno and Media Defence support the legal defence of environmental activist Linda Maggiori

OSSIGENO November 27^th 2024 – The Legal Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione, which operates in collaboration with Media Defence, has decided to assist in court Linda Maggiori, a blogger and environmental activist from Faenza (Ravenna) sued for defamation by a city councillor in relation to a post she published on social media.

In the post, the blogger criticized the designers of the San Martino neighbourhood of Faenza, a development  of terraced houses that in the last two years has been flooded three times following the overflowing of the nearby Marzeno stream, resulting in the evacuation of residents and enormous damage. Ossigeno considers the lawsuit  to be unfounded and specious and has decided to support Linda Maggiori’s legal costs, entrusting the defence to the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro.

OSSIGENO expresses solidarity with the blogger, believing that Linda Maggiori has expressed her opinion competently and in measured language on a very current public issue. She gave her opinion while the issue was being widely discussed. Faced with an environmental emergency, she highlighted the historical underestimation of some hydrogeological risks, recalling the responsibility that falls upon public administrators and planners of housing developments. She set out the questionable urban planning choices which, years later, produced serious damage. Public debate is essential in every democratic society. It is made up of affirmations, praise, criticism and responses. Unfortunately, often, those who do not agree with the criticisms instead of asking and obtaining the right to reply resort to a lawsuit (i.e. a criminal complaint). Instead of responding on the merits of the issue, instead of refuting the criticisms, they ask a judge to punish the author of the criticisms by defining them as defamatory even when they are not. Too many lawsuits are used in Italy instead of replies. Every year, thousands of criticisms are considered defamatory even if they are not. Many are the result of ignorance of the law, but for the most part these lawsuits  are initiated knowingly, for the purpose of deterrence, to silence those who publish unwelcome information forcing them to face the legal costs necessary to demonstrate their correctness. Almost always the complainant is financially  the stronger whilst for the defendant the legal costs are too expensive. For this reason, Ossigeno has created its Legal Aid  Desk which operates with the support of Media Defence.

THE BLOG POST – The journalist defined the neighbourhood designed in 2005 as “a death trap in the event of flooding,” since it is made up of “low dwellings  with residential ground floors and basements” and “the Marzano stream is just a few meters away.” “At the time,” she added, “nobody thought about it,” and now the planners should admit the design error and apologize to the residents. In particular, she asked the city councillor of Faenza and former assessor, who was part of that design studio, to make a public apology. After the flood in May 2023, the blogger wrote that “Everyone can make mistakes, but at least you have to admit your mistakes,” inviting the councillor to admit his mistakes and to say that planning  ground floor residences adjacent to the river bank, although appreciated from a technical point of view, was a mistake, “crazy bullshit,” she said, ironically quoting the comic character Fantozzi, and suggesting the wording of the apology : “With hindsight, we should have built a storm overflow storage tank there, not a neighbourhood, I apologize to those poor people who went to live there and now have lost everything.” 

ASP