The court action for defamation has survived all the reforms of the Justice System, from the removal of penalties for false accounting, to the Lodo Alfano, the separation of the career, to the gagging of information. The court action for defamation is useful for those in power. It is a weapon for the rich. It is used to intimidate. To shut people up. To remove the financial means from the adversary. Often with the search for a tiny detail, like for example, the failure to put a phrase in inverted commas. The court action can be in the civil or the criminal courts. If all goes well, the adversary gets trapped in the mire and you take home a neat sum. Perhaps with the slice of a fifth of some poor wretch’s salary.
The action of defamation should be depenalised. And if there’s a request for financial compensation, the one who brings the action, should be obliged to deposit the whole sum requested in an account with the Tribunal. If they lose, that deposit will be used to compensate the one who has been taken to task. It’s too convenient to cover someone with mud, to frighten them and then to get away with just paying the court costs.
Usually, the action is taken against someone who is telling the truth, not a lie. Usually the ones bringing the actions are the politicians and the representatives of the so-called institutions, never the citizens. Usually the action for defamation is used rather than other means of discussion so as to end up in the newspapers of the regime and give the impression of being innocent. I’m thinking of Schifani who cannot be put on trial and has taken Travaglio to court for defamation. “Mavalà Ghedini” is threatening to take anyone to court if they call his client a “whoremonger” (and that’s practically half the world). Cicchitto has taken L’Espresso to court.
I’ve got some good lawyers and a lot of court actions. I’d prefer not to have them, but they are a part of the game. Nearly always, I’ve won. Most bloggers have no money, and neither are they accustomed to being taken to court by a powerful guy, who at times, can use well-known lawyers, sometimes at the expense of the State. The whole of the Internet is at risk of being taken to court. All the truth that is on the Internet is an attack on the Regime. It’s not possible to take a court action out against the Internet, but it’s possible to limit it, to place on it, idiotic restrictions like those in China and Burma as they have done and as they are doing. This is why I want to create a “pool” of Internet lawyers who are available for those who are taken to court.
I’m asking all those lawyers who read what I write who want to defend bloggers for free, to send me their contact details. I will insert them in a list on the blog. For the more complex cases, I will make available my own lawyers, who by now have quite a bit of experience. From September, there‘ll be a “help” area on the blog for the bloggers who have been taken to court with the facts you must know so as to defend yourself, the law firms that you can turn to and a list of the current actions against Internet publications. They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.

P.S.: The lawyers who want to contact me for this initiative can leave me their details on the blog using the category: "Aspetti legali del blog" {Blog legal aspects}.