Brian Molko criticised Giorgia Meloni during a concert at the Sonic Park festival

Meloni heads Italy’s most rightwing government since the second world war. Italy’s criminal code punishes with a fine ranging from €1,000 to €5,000 anyone who “publicly defames the republic”, which includes the government, parliament, the courts and the army.

  • Matthew@programming.devEnglish
    361·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been surprised that some western countries have laws like this. A French woman has also been fined for insulting Macron.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.deEnglish
      22·
      1 year ago

      The public prosecution department in Germany let someone’s home got searched because he called a conservative politician “Du bist so 1 Pimmel” (“you are such a penis”) via Twitter.

      At the same time the public prosecution department in Germany regularly refuses to take action against hate speech when aimed against other people. Even other politicians.

      And since many people do not really understand our jurisdiction, they believe it is enough to protest against the police.

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      93·
      1 year ago

      It’s almost like making laws against free speech is a slippery slope.

          • DrFuggles@feddit.deEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Nope. There’s a bunch of thoughts and speech acts that don’t contribute anything. There’s a reason the swastika and other Nazi codes/insignia are outlawed in Germany. “We just need to exterminate the Jews for a better life for everyone else” is similarly outlawed under an incitement to genocide clause.

            There are very good reasons to put barriers on absolutely free speech.

            • problematicPanther@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5·
              1 year ago

              What i meant was actually, fighting words are not protected under free speech in the USA. Not disagreeing, just making a funny.

              • suction@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                1 year ago

                Not just that, slander, defamation, hate speech, harassment can all be speech yet you can get sued and will have to pay for that sort of speech. Actually the US is basically the same as most other western countries, the „only the US allows free speech“-simpletons couldn’t be further off.

    • nefonous@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      To be exact, there is a difference between insult and defamation

      I’m not too sure about the technicalities either, so I’m not sure if insulting is also a problem.

      But declamation requires saying something false to ruin the other person’s reputation, and it’s actually a crime even against normal people