Brussels finds no progress on stalled reforms to protect journalists from frivolous libel suits. The government is being told to take action to reform defamation laws in Italy.
Italy should press ahead with reform of its defamation laws to make it harder to bring frivolous and vexatious libel suits, and should do more to strengthen press freedom, the European Commission said on Friday.
“No progress has been made in the legislative process regarding the defamation reform, the protection of professional secrecy, and journalistic sources,” the Commission said in its recommendations to Italy, attached to its 2025 Rule of Law Report. “Therefore, Italy is recommended to advance the reform while guaranteeing press freedom, taking into account European standards in this area.”
A wider list of stalled reforms
The recommendations also called on Rome to accelerate progress on a broader set of stagnant reforms, covering conflicts of interest, lobbying, political financing, and the protection of press freedom. These are Brussels has flagged repeatedly in previous editions of the annual report without seeing meaningful legislative movement.
The Commission’s call lands against a backdrop in which Premier Giorgia Meloni and her Deputy Matteo Salvini have become one of the most prominent users of Italy’s defamation laws. Since taking office in 2022, they have pursued a series of high-profile suits against journalists, writers and public figures over comments made about them.
The most closely watched of these was the case against investigative journalist Roberto Saviano, author of the mafia exposé “Gomorrah”, who was ordered to pay a symbolic fine after criticising Salvini’s stance on migrant rescue ships during a 2020 television appearance. The case drew condemnation from press freedom groups internationally, with the writers’ association PEN International warning at the time that pursuing it would send a chilling signal to journalists and writers across the country.
Meloni has also taken legal action over the years against a journalist who mocked her height, the newspaper Domani over a report alleging she had helped a party colleague secure a government contract, and Placebo frontman Brian Molko after he denounced her from the stage at a festival near Turin. Separately, she has pursued civil damages over deepfake pornographic videos that circulated online before she took office.
Rights groups say the pattern is symptomatic
Press freedom advocates have long pointed to Italy’s defamation regime — under which journalists can still, in principle, face prison sentences for libel — as one of the more restrictive in Western Europe. They have also argued that cases brought by senior political figures carry a disproportionate chilling effect given the imbalance of resources between plaintiff and defendant.
The Commission’s latest report gives that argument fresh institutional weight, placing Italy’s stalled reform process on record at EU level for another year running.
