Legal assistance. Two reporters defended by Osssigeno acquitted after 6 year

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Lorenzo Bagnoli and Lorenzo Bodrero published an article on the extraordinary activities of the plaintiff in the diplomatic and entrepreneurial fields

OSSIGENO May 18^th 2022 – by Oreste Vighi – After six years, the General Prosecutor of Rome, Ezio Damizia, dismissed the libel lawsuit presented by Angelo Antonio Toriello against the then director of the weekly L’Espresso, Tommaso Cerno, and the investigative journalists Craig Shaw, Lorenzo Bagnoli and Lorenzo Bodrero, authors of an article in L’Espresso published on July 28^th 2016. The article reported on the activities of the plaintiff, a character at that time talked about for his extraordinary activities in the diplomatic and entrepreneurial context.

Bagnoli and Bodrero, freelance at the time, were defended by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro on behalf of the Free Legal Aid Office of Ossigeno per l’Informazione which, in collaboration with Media Defence, has fully borne the legal costs.

The Public Prosecutor Dr. Calabretta was initially oriented towards indicting the journalists. Then she took note of the validity of the defence statements presented by the journalists’ lawyers, changed her mind and asked the investigating judge to dismiss it.

THE ARTICLE entitled “International Intrigues, Malfeasance at the UN” was a journalistic investigation concerning events of undeniable public interest. The publication was preceded by a long and scrupulous research and cross-referencing of sources, both those interviewed and documentation, by the three investigative journalists, who published the exclusive information obtained on Toriello.

THE DEFENCE COUNSEL noted that Toriello himself in his curriculum vitae  published online mentioned his professional experiences, which ranged from scientific research to consultancy and analysis on security matters, from television journalism to the production of documentaries, from diplomatic and humanitarian missions to the creation of advertising campaigns. The journalists drew the readers’ attention to the participation of Toriello in the historic transmission “Quelli della Notte” of Renzo Arbore in the role of the singer Marvin and his subsequent forays into India where he met the Dalai Lama and subsequently founded “the Project Mystic Connection association”, inspired by a form of affinity between Buddhism and Franciscanism so much so that calls himself Brother Emmanuel.

OSSIGENO expresses satisfaction for the umpteenth acquittal obtained by its Free Legal Aid Office established for journalists who do not have indemnification from their publishers and for the positive balance of the activity of the Aid Office which, in its seven years of activity has obtained the acquittal of all the journalists it assisted without any financial consequences for them.

Oreste Vighi