#9 Global Media Law or Ethics

 Freedom of The Press in Italy

    We all know that in the United States, freedom of the press has little to no restriction that can have long-lasting consequences on individuals. That fact is not the case for journalists and reporters in other countries. Partly this due to the United States being a federal constitutional democratic republic, while other countries are seen as authoritarian or dictatorship. Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely (Freedom of the press Wiki). 

    Freedom of the press in the United States is taken more freely than other countries. Journalists and reporters in the United States would never have to fear for their life performing acts of freedom of the press. Reporting in other countries is a lot more dangerous than the United States because of the policies their government has on them. In a way they take away free thinking or creative writing from journalists and reporters in other countries. Today I'm going to be analyzing a country that has some restrictions on freedom of the press in the past but have since moved into building a better system in place for reporters and journalists. The country I will be analyzing is Italy. Italy is a country consisting of a continental part, delimited by the Alps, a peninsula and several islands surrounding it. Italy is located in Southern Europe, and is also considered part of Western Europe. With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy). 

    There are several factors that contribute to restrictions for journalists and reporters. To start off Italy's government has a strong influence on their freedom of press. The Council of Europe report found that the Italian government was largely to blame for poor press freedom in Italy. It cited “hostile rhetoric” from government ministers as contributing the increased threat level, and stated that Italian authorities have not responded to any journalist safety alerts since June 2017.The report said most of the alerts were recorded after the coalition government took office in June 2018. It said journalists' unions complained of a “constant risk of violence fuelled by the hostile rhetoric of members of the government and the ruling coalition parties'' (https://www.thelocal.it/20190503/what-you-need-to-know-about-press-freedom-in-italy-in-2019/). Another factor is journalists and reporters face harassment from the Italian mafia. The mafia has placed fear in journalists and reporters by invoking violence and death threats. Reporters and journalists have been caught in the way of the mafia's activities. One of the biggest factors that journalists and reporters have to face when dealing with freedom of press is possibly jail time for defamation. If any reporter or journalist found using incriminating slander could face serious prison time. With all these factors that reporters and journalists face, it would be very tough to have freedom of the press. Even though Italy's freedom of the press isn't as bad as it used to be, reporters and journalists are never really fully protected.