“What investigates the Guardia di Finanza“, “the general”, “we put it”. The former Undersecretary for the Economy was speaking, captured by a hidden camera Claudio Durigon elected to the Chamber in 2018 with the League and forced to resign after his words on a park to be named after Mussolini. The sentence was is contained in the first episode of the video-inchiesta Follow the money made by Backstair, the investigative team of Fanpage.it composed of Carla Falzone and Sacha Biazzo, with Marco Billeci and Adriano Biondi. Well today in the reaction of the journalist a decree of the judge for the preliminary investigations of Rome was notified which orders the preventive seizure, by means of blackout, of the videos that contain the investigation. A decree disposed of a lawsuit for defamation against unknown persons despite the fact that the investigation was signed and the newspaper has a responsible director and co-director. And so this morning at the headquarters of Fanpage.it two plainclothes policemen showed up and notified the deed. As far as the fattoquotidiano.it learns, a search was not carried out. “This story is absurd – explains the director Francesco Cancellato – our lawyers have explained to us that it never happened. The investigation was resumed by various newspapers (including fattoquotidiano.it, ed), and was the subject of parliamentary questions. We are very concerned that it will be darkened in advance. It is very strange, there is a heavy climate, not a beautiful one“.
Deleted in a long article on the site defines the measure as “a serious matter. For that investigation we have already received several warnings and complaints, as it is legitimate. Anyone who feels offended or defamed by our articles has the right to assert their reasons in a court, and there is a judge and three courts to find out. What was notified to us today is very different. What was notified to us today, seizure and preventive blackout of a journalistic content, refers to provisions that should not be issued in a country where democracy is in force and whose Constitution, therefore, does not allow it ”.
Also because the journalist remembers: “Article 21 says that we cannot: ‘The press cannot be subject to authorizations or censorship. Seizure can be carried out only by reasoned act of the judicial authority in the case of crimes, for which the law on the press expressly authorizes it, or in the case of violation of the rules that the law itself prescribes for the indication of those responsible ‘. Therefore the preventive seizure of a journalistic product, even if published on the web pages of a registered information site, it is allowed only where crimes other than defamation are hypothesized. This is not our case. Journalistic content cannot be seized and obscured for the crime of defamation, as confirmed by numerous rulings of the Court of Cassation ”.
“It cannot be seized and obscured in advance, before the truth is ascertained – adds Cancellato -. It cannot be seized and obscured because there is no longer a precautionary need, as the video and the news were taken up by several newspapers, circulate online and are therefore in the public domain. And one cannot proceed against unknown persons, as the prosecutor did, when the authors of the reports are known as is the director and they can defend themselves if investigated, but they cannot if they are not registered. We repeat: a journalistic investigation will be put offline, when the measure is carried out, without any conviction, any procedure or investigation and without even having heard the authors of the report and the editor of the newspaper, because they are placed in the technical impossibility of doing so. In the next few days you will no longer see those contents of fanpage.it, due to a decision of a court that we strongly contest. What we are undergoing today at Fanpage.it is, in our opinion, a serious violation of the freedom of the press that the Constitution does not allow. And a dangerous and intimidating precedent that affects us all. As reporters. As readers. As citizens. This is why we cannot be silent. For this we also need you ”.
The Press Act lists in an exhaustive manner the exceptional cases in which the seizure of newspapers and other publications is possible, but the crime of defamation is not one of these. The Order of Journalists of Campania “is alongside the colleagues of Fanpage.it who this morning was notified, in the Neapolitan editorial office, of a seizure and preventive blackout decree – that we do not know in what way and form it can be carried outor – for a journalistic investigation on the former under-secretary of the Lega Claudio Durigon which also brings up Giuseppe Zafarana, current commander general of the Guardia di Finanza. The idea that it is possible to order a newspaper to be blocked in advance without the judicial authority having heard the authors of the service in question or the director responsible, is serious and must be strongly rejected in all offices “, concludes the note from the Order of Journalists of Campania “.