Italy

[IT] Court of Milan Punishes Journalists

IRIS 2005-1:1/31

Hamdi Jupe

Albanian Media Monitoring Center

In its decision of 12 November 2004 the Court of Milan declared two Italian journalists guilty of defamation and insult . In an article the two journalists had accused the prime minister of Albania of being involved with international mafia clans. The article was published in 2002 in two Italian newspapers and had been republished in one Albanian newspaper. The Court decided that the journalists had to pay fines of EUR 200,000. It also decided that the daily newspapers in Italy and Albania that had (re-)published the article were obliged to print the Court Decision on the respective case in the same format as the article. The article had been released by an Italian newspaper on 2 August 2004, just a few days after the appointment of the prime minister of Albania. One of the Albanian newspapers called the decision of the Court of Milan "absurd", arguing that Albanian territory was not under the jurisdiction of the Court of Milan. Such an article of the Italian newspaper could be reprinted by hundreds of newspapers all over the world ­ including in Albania.