Milan, July 19, 2024, The Europe Today: An Italian court in Milan has ordered journalist Giulia Cortese to pay €5,000 ($5,450) in damages to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for “body shaming” on social media. The court also imposed a suspended fine of €1,200 on Cortese for another post about Meloni’s height on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Cortese, reacting to the sentence, remarked, “Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent.”
The legal conflict originated from a social media exchange between the two women three years ago. Cortese had posted a mocked-up photo of Meloni with the late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the background. In response, Meloni described the photo on Facebook as of “unique gravity” and announced legal action against Cortese.
Further escalating the exchange, Cortese tweeted, “You don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall. I can’t even see you.” While Cortese was acquitted of the tweet comparing Meloni to Mussolini, she was convicted of defamation for comments on Meloni’s height, which the judge ruled constituted “body shaming.”
Cortese has the option to appeal the sentence. Meloni’s lawyer stated that the €5,000 in damages would be donated to charity.
This is not the first instance of Meloni taking legal action against journalists. Last year, a Rome court fined best-selling author Roberto Saviano €1,000 plus legal expenses after he insulted Meloni on television in 2021 regarding her hardline stance on illegal immigration.
