Censorship in Italy applies to all media and print media. Many of the laws regulatingfreedom of the press in the modernItalian Republic come from the liberal reform promulgated byGiovanni Giolitti in 1912, which also establisheduniversal suffrage for all male citizens of theKingdom of Italy. Many of these liberal laws were repealed by theMussolini government already during the first years of government (think of the "ultra-fascist" laws of 1926).
In Italy, freedom of the press is guaranteed by theConstitution of 1948. This freedom was specifically established in response to the censorship which occurred during the fascist regime ofBenito Mussolini (1922–1943). Censorship continues to be an issue of debate in the modern era. In 2015,Freedom House classified the Italian press as "partly free",[1] while in the report of the same yearReporters Without Borders placed Italy in 73rd place in the world for freedom of the press.[2]
DuringItalian unification, in the period following theCongress of Vienna (1814–1815), incisive control over the press by the monarchies was in place on Italian territory. In the capitals of the various states, and in the most important urban centres, generally only one official sheet of the monarchy was issued, generally entitled Gazzetta, which was used for the publication of laws[3] and carefully selected news.
In addition to these, however, there were literary and cultural periodicals, where new ideas could be expressed. In 1816, on the initiative of the Austrians, a literary monthly magazine entitledBiblioteca Italiana was founded in Milan, in which over 400 intellectuals andmen of letters from all over Italy were invited to collaborate (not always successfully). This magazine was counterbalanced byIl Conciliatore, a statistical-literary periodical close to theromantic ideas ofMadame de Staël, which continued to appear until 1819 when it was forced to close.[4]
The situation of Italian journalism began to change with the foundation of numerous clandestine newspapers, printed by Carbonari nuclei and underground revolutionary movements, which led to theuprisings of 1820–1821. One of the best-known newspapers of this period isL'Illuminismo, published in thePapal Legations in 1820, along withLa Minerva of Naples andLa Sentinella Subalpina of Turin. In the same period, there was also a certain journalistic activism in Italian liberal circles. In fact,Antologia, a journal of science, literature and arts, founded in Florence in 1821, the GenoeseCorriere Mercantile of 1824 andL'Indicatore genovese, to which the youngGiuseppe Mazzini also collaborated, date back to those years.
Changes regardingfreedom of the press occurred in 1847 and 1848 during thepopular uprisings that occurred in those years, following new measures:[5]
These measures had the effect of limiting preventive censorship of the press.
In Florence the following were published:La Zanzara (1849);La Frusta (1849);Il Popolano (1848–1849);L'Arte (1848–1859) in whichCarlo Collodi collaborated,Buon gusto (1851–1864); La Speranza (1851–1859);Etruria (1851–1852);Il Genio (23 December 1852–31 June 1854);Lo Scaramuccia (1853–1859);La Polimazia di famiglia (1854–1856);L'Eco d'Europa (1854–1856);L'Eco dei Teatri (1854–1856);L'Indicatore Teatrale (1855–1858);L'Avvisatore (1856–1859);L'Imparziale (1856–1867);Lo Spettatore (1855–59);Il Passatempo (1856–1858);La Lanterna di Diogene (1856–1859);La Lente (1856–1861) in which Carlo Collodi collaborated;L'Arlecchino (1858);Il Caffè (1858);Il Carlo Goldoni (1858);Piovano Arlotto (1858–1862); andIl Poliziano, from January to June 1859.[6]
TheAgenzia Stefani was founded in 1853 in Turin byGuglielmo Stefani. In Genoa in 1860, at the instigation of Giuseppe Mazzini,L'Unità Italiana was founded. In the wake of theExpedition of the Thousand, the following were founded in the same year:L'Ineditore in Palermo and in Naples the MazzinianIl Popolo d'Italia.
Many of the laws regulating freedom of the press in the modernItalian Republic come from the liberal reform promulgated byGiovanni Giolitti in 1912, which also establisheduniversal suffrage for all male citizens of theKingdom of Italy. Many of these liberal laws were repealed by theMussolini government already during the first years of government.
The first law that introduced a real censorship intervention in theunified Italy was the one relating to cinema screenings and dates back to 1913.[7] With this law the representation of obscene or shocking shows or those contrary to decency, decorum, public order and the prestige of institutions and authorities was prevented. The subsequent regulation,[8] issued in 1914, listed a long series of prohibitions and transferred the power of intervention from the local public security authorities to theMinistry of the Interior. In 1920, with a Royal Decree,[9] a commission was established, which among other things had the task of preventively viewing the film script before filming began.
On 23 May 1915, duringWorld War I, with decrees nos. 674, 675 and 689, censorship of the press and mail was established. Newspapers cannot provide information on the number of wounded, prisoners and fallen, on appointments and changes in military high command, other than that contained in official press releases.[10] Some changes were introduced to the public security law; the prefects have the power to order the seizure of a newspaper and its suspension after two subsequent seizures.[10] For the entire duration of the war, the authorities responsible for controlling the press, eager to present an optimistic picture of the situation to the public, suggested to the newspapers how to select the news. The pressure from the authorities, combined with the expectations of the public, who wanted to read only positive news in the newspapers, caused the Italian press to self-censor.
The newspapers, despite receiving well-detailed news from the front from their war correspondents, did not publish everything. They voluntarily concealed part of the news from the reading public, publishing articles that hid, and in some cases falsified, much of the truth.[11] On 19 November 1918, after the end of the war, the causes of seizure of periodic publications were limited to information of a military nature and untruthful news that could cause alarm in public opinion or disturb international relations. With the decree of 29 June 1919, the restrictive regulations that came into force in the spring of 1915 were repealed; at the same time, the general director of public security, Vincenzo Quaranta, reduced surveillance on the media.
Censorship in Italy was not created withFascism, nor did it end with it,[12] but it had a heavy influence in the life of Italians under the Regime.
The main goals of censorship under fascism were, concisely:
Censorship fought ideological and defeatist contents, and any other work or content that would not enforce nationalist fascism.[13]
This branch of the activity was mainly ruled by theMinistero della Cultura Popolare (Ministry of popular culture), commonly abbreviated as "Min. Cul. Pop.". This administration had authority over all the contents that could appear in newspapers, radio, literature, theatre, cinema, and generally any other form of communication or art.
In literature, editorial industries had their own controlling servants steadily on site, but sometimes it could happen that some texts reached the libraries and in this case, an efficient organization was able to capture all the copies in a very short time.
On the issue of censoring foreign language use, the idea ofautarky effectively banned foreign languages, and any attempt to use a non-Italian word resulted in a formal censoring action.[14] Reminiscences of this ban could be detected in thedubbing of all foreign movies broadcast onRAI (Italian state owned public service broadcaster):captioning is very rarely used.
Censorship did not however impose heavy limits on foreign literature, and many works by foreign authors were freely readable. Those authors could freely frequent Italy and even write about it, with no reported troubles.
In 1930, it was forbidden to distribute books that containedMarxist,Socialist or Anarchist like ideologies, but these books could be collected in public libraries in special sections not open to the general public. The same happened for the books that were sequestrated. All these texts could be read under authorization for scientific or cultural purposes, but it is said that this permission was quite easy to obtain. In 1938, there were publicbonfires of forbidden books, enforced by fascist militias ("camicie nere"). Any work containing themes about Jewish culture, freemasonry, communist, or socialist ideas, was removed also by libraries (but it has been said that effectively the order was not executed with zeal, being a very unpopular position of the Regime).
It has been said that the Italian press censored itself before the censorship commission could do it. Effectively the actions against the press were formally very few, but it has been noted that due to press hierarchical organization, the regime felt to be quite safe, controlling it by the direct naming of directors and editors through the"Ordine dei Giornalisti".
Most of the intellectuals, who after the war would have freely expressed theiranti-fascism, were however journalists during fascism, and quite comfortably could find a way to work in a system in which news directly came from the government.
Newer revisionists talk about the servility of journalists, but are surprisingly followed in this concept by many other authors and by some leftist ones too, since the same suspect was always attributed to the Italian press, before, during and after the Ventennio, and still in recent times the category has not completely demonstrated yet its independence from "strong powers". A well-known Italian journalist writer,Ennio Flaiano, certainly an anti-fascist, used to say that journalists do not need to care of "that irrelevant majority of Italians".[15]
Independent (illegal) press used clandestine print and distribution and were mainly connected with the activities of local political groups.
The control of legitimate papers was practically operated by faithful civil servants at the printing machines and this allowed reporting a common joke affirming that any text that could reach readers had been "written by theDuce and approved by the foreman".
Fascist censorship promoted papers with wider attention to mere chronology of delicate political moments, to distract public opinion from dangerous passages of the government. Press then focused on other terrifying figures (murderers, serial killers, terrorists, paedophiles, etc.). When needed, an image of a safe ordered State was instead to be stressed, then police were able to capture all the criminals and, as a famous topic says,[16] trains were always in perfect time. All these manoeuvres were commonly directed by MinCulPop directly.
After fascism, the democratic republic did not change the essence of the fascist law on press, which is now organized as it was before, like the law on access to the profession of journalist remained unaltered.
About satire and related press, Fascism was not more severe, and in fact, a famous magazine,Marc'Aurelio, was able to operate with little trouble.[17] In 1924–1925, during the most violent times of fascism (when squads used brutality against opposition) with reference to the death ofGiacomo Matteotti killed by fascists,Marc'Aurelio published a series of heavy jokes and "comic" drawings describing dictatorBenito Mussolini finally distributing peace. Marc'Aurelio however would have turned to a more integrated tone during the following years and in 1938 (the year of the racial laws) published tasteless anti-Semitic content.
Quite obviously, any telephone call was at risk of being intercepted and, sometimes, interrupted by censors.[18]
Not all the letters were opened, but not all those read by censors had the regular stamp that recorded the executed control. Most of the censorship was probably not declared, to secretly consent to further police investigations.
Chatteringen plein air was indeed very risky, as a special section of investigators dealt with what people were saying on the roads; an eventual accusation by some policeman in disguise was evidently very hard to disprove and many people reported having been falsely accused of anti-national sentiments, just for personal interests of the spy. Consequently, after the first cases, people commonly avoided talking publicly.
The greatest amount of documents about fascist censorship came from the military commissions for censorship. The military censorship commissions compiled the opinions and feelings of the soldiers at the front in a note, which was received daily by Mussolini or his apparatus.[19]
This was due to several factors. The war had brought many Italians far from their homes, creating a need for writing to their families that previously did not exist. In a critical situation such as war, military authorities were compelled to control eventual internal oppositions, spies or defeatists. Finally, the result of the war could not allow fascists to hide or delete these documents or remain in public offices where they could be found by occupying troops.
The fact that Italians were well aware that any communication could be intercepted, recorded, analyzed and eventually used against them, caused censorship, in time, to become a sort of usual rule to consider, and soon most people used jargon or other conventional systems to overtake the rules.
In most of the small villages, life continued as before, since the local authorities used a very familiar style in executing such orders. Also in many urban realities, civil servants used little zeal and more humanity. But the general effect was indeed relevant.
In theatre, censorship caused a revival of "canovaccio" and Commedia dell'arte given that all the stories had to obtain prior permission before being performed.
Fascism fell during the third year of the war, 1943. In July the Allies began the liberation of Italy bylanding in Sicily. A few weeks later, on 25 July, the Mussolini regime fell, triggering the start of theItalian Civil War. The effect on Italian newspapers was immediate. All editors who were members of theNational Fascist Party, or militants, were dismissed and replaced. Just 45 days later Germany invaded Italy and there was a new change. All newspapers in Northern Italy remained under Nazi-Fascist control until April 1945.
The new Prime Minister, GeneralPietro Badoglio, instead of suppressing theMinistry of Popular Culture, suspended its activities and used it to transmit new orders aimed at controlling the press.[20] The decree of 9 August 1943, n. 727, dictated very restrictive rules on freedom of the press:
The effects of the decree ceased less than a month later, with the unconditional surrender to the Allies.[21] TheArmistice of Cassibile, signed on 3 September 1943, in fact, contained rules regarding the regulation of the press:
Writers, journalists, playwrights and political exponents whose work had been prohibited, interdicted or forced underground by censorship and the abolition of the freedom of the press during the years of fascism resumed writing and publishing articles, books and other literary productions.[24][25]
In the same period, the Allies increased the hours ofRadio Londra programming that could be received in Northern Italy. In 1943 they reached the duration of 4 hours and 15 minutes.[26] Radios were also used to send coded messages, passwords and other communications to fighters in areas still in conflict or under Nazi-Fascist occupation.[27]
Starting in 1944, the reorganization of executive power between central and peripheral bodies began in liberated Italy. The decrees no. 13 and 14 of 14 January 1944 assigned the prefects the power to grant printing licenses and established the obligation for publishers to report stocks of paper and printing materials. With the legislative decree of 31 May 1946, n. 561, the rules of the past regime on the seizure of publications were cancelled and the pre-existing situation was returned.[28]
One of the most important cases of censorship in Italy was the banning of one episode of the TV showLe Iene showing use ofcocaine in the Italian Parliament.[29]As with all the othermedia of Italy, the Italian television industry is widely considered both inside and outside the country to be overtlypoliticized.[30] According to a December 2008 poll, only 24% of Italians trust televisionnews programmes, compared unfavourably to the British rate of 38%, making Italy one of only three examined countries where online sources are considered more reliable than television ones for information.[31][32]
Italy put anembargo on foreignbookmakers over the Internet (in violation of EU market rules) by mandating certain edits to DNS host files of Italian ISPs.[33] Italy also blocks access to websites containing child pornography.[34]
Advertisements promotingVideocracy, a Swedish documentary examining the influence of television on Italian culture over the last 30 years, was refused airing purportedly because it says the spots are an offence to PremierSilvio Berlusconi.[35]
Films, anime and cartoons are often modified or cut on national television networks such asMediaset orRAI.[36] An example of this occurred in December 2008, whenBrokeback Mountain was aired onRai 2 during primetime. Several scenes featuring mildly sexual (or even just romantic) behaviour of the two protagonists were cut. This act was severely criticized by Italian LGBT activist organizations and others.[37]
In 1950 a cartoon published inCandido (n. 25 of 18 June), drawn by Carletto Manzoni, costGiovannino Guareschi, co-director of the weekly at the time, his first conviction for contempt of thePresident of Italy,Luigi Einaudi.[38] The cartoon, entitledAl Quirinale, depicted a double row of bottles with, at the bottom, the figurine of a man with a stick, like a great officer reviewing two groups ofCorazzieri ("The Corazzieri" was the caption of the cartoon).Candido had highlighted the fact that Einaudi, on the labels of the wine he produced (aNebbiolo), allowed his public office as President of Italy to be highlighted. The bottle of wine, in fact, had "Nebbiolo, the President's wine" on the label. There were also other cartoons, besides theAl Quirinale one, such as that of theGiro d'Italia with the motto "Toast Einaudi!" or the little man who had the "bottle of Damocles" on his head. Sentenced to eight months in prison, the execution of the sentence was suspended as Guareschi had no criminal record.[39]
With thebirth of the Italian Republic, as regards film censorship, no substantial changes were introduced compared to the censorship provided for by the laws approved during the fascist regime, despite Article 21 of theConstitution allowing freedom of the press and all forms of expression. Under pressure mainly from the Catholic world, the paragraph was added which establishes a ban on shows and all other demonstrations contrary to morality. A central office for cinematography was established at thePresidency of the Council, where the opinions of the first and second-degree commissions converged, essentially remaining those of 1923, even if slightly changed in their composition.
In 1949 a law was issued, presented by the then undersecretary for entertainmentGiulio Andreotti, which was supposed to support and promote the growth ofItalian cinema and at the same time slow down the advance of American films, but also the embarrassing "excesses" ofItalian neorealism (which remained famous in this regard his statement according to which "Dirty laundry is washed in the family"). Following this rule, the screenplay had to be approved by a state commission before it could receive public funding. Furthermore, if it was believed that a film defamed Italy, the export license could be denied.[40]
In 1962, a new law on the review of films and theatrical works was approved,[41] which remained in force until 2021: although it brought about some changes, it confirmed the maintenance of a preventive system of censorship and made screening subject to the release of authorization. publishes films and exports them abroad. Based on this law, the opinion on the film was expressed by a specific first-level Commission (and by a second-level one for appeals), while the authorization was issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment (established in 1959).
In addition to total censorship, from the 1930s to the 1990s another form of censorship was in vogue in Italy, that of targeted cuts. In practice, it was customary to cut the parts of the film that were not wanted to be shown, while still allowing the manipulated film to be shown.[42] On 5 April 2021, the total abolition of film censorship in Italy was announced.[43][44]
Immediately after the end of World War II, with the rise to power of theChristian Democracy, censorship of music targeted references that could cause disturbance. Thus religion is the object of censorship, a particularly sensational case ofDio è morto ("God is dead") sung byNomadi, which is censored byRAI but regularly broadcast byVatican Radio.
Another sensitive topic is sex, the object of particularly ferocious censorship, as happens for example in the case ofJe t'aime... moi non-plus, sung bySerge Gainsbourg andJane Birkin in 1969, a record which was seized and its sale permanently prohibited.[45] The Catholic "censorship" began to loosen in the second half of the 1970s, however, numerous censorships continued to be practised in the following decades.[45]
In 2009, the board of state television RAI cut funds for legal assistance to the investigative journalism TV programmeReport (aired byRai 3, a state-owned channel). The program had tackled sensitive issues in the past that exposed the journalists to legal action (for example the authorization of buildings that did not meet earthquake-resistance specifications, cases of overwhelming bureaucracy, the slow process of justice, prostitution, health care scandals, bankrupt bankers secretly owning multimillion-dollar paintings, waste mismanagement involvingdioxin toxic waste, cancers caused byasbestos anti-fire shielding (Eternit) and environmental pollution caused by a coalpower station near the city ofTaranto). An accumulation of lawsuits against the journalists in the absence of the funds to handle them could bring the program to an end.[46]
Before 2004, in the "Freedom of the Press" report, published by the American organization Freedom House, Italy had always been classified as "Free" (regarding the freedom of the press). In 2004, it was demoted to "Partly Free", due to "20 years of failed political administration", the "controversial Gasparri's Law of 2003" and the "possibility for prime minister to influence the RAI (Italian state-owned Radio-Television), aconflict of interests among the most blatant in the World".
Italy's status was upgraded to "free" in 2007 and 2008 under theProdi II Cabinet, to come back as "partly free" in 2009 with theBerlusconi IV Cabinet. Freedom House noted that Italy constitutes "a regional outlier" and particularly quoted the "increased government attempts to interfere with editorial policy at state-run broadcast outlets, particularly regarding coverage of scandals surrounding prime minister Silvio Berlusconi."[47] In their 2011 report, Freedom House continued to list Italy as "partly free" and ranked the country 24th out of 25 in the Western European region, ahead ofTurkey.[48] In 2020 Italy was listed again in The Freedom House report as Free.[49]
Defamation is a crime in Italy with the possibility of large fines and/or prison terms.[50] Thus anti-defamation actions may intimidate reporters and encourageself-censorship.
In February 2004, the journalist Massimiliano Melilli was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a €100,000 fine for two articles, published on 9 and 16 November 1996, that reported rumours of "erotic parties" supposedly attended by members of Trieste high society.[51][52]
In July, magistrates in Naples placedLino Jannuzzi, a 76-year-old journalist and senator, under house arrest, although they allowed him the possibility of attending the work of the parliament during daytime. In 2002, he was arrested, found guilty of "defamation through the press" ("diffamazione a mezzo stampa"), and sentenced to 29 months' imprisonment because of articles that appeared in a local paper for which he was editor-in-chief. The articles revealed the irresponsible operation of the judiciary and highlighted what Jannuzzi called wrong and unjust sentences. Therefore, it was widely perceived that his sentence was given as revenge by the judiciary.[53] Following heavy criticism from home and abroad, in February 2005, ItalianPresident Ciampi pardoned Jannuzzi.[54]
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Silvio Berlusconi's extensive control over the media was widely criticised by both analysts[55] and press freedom organisations, who alleged that Italy's media had limited freedom of expression. TheFreedom of the Press 2004 Global Survey, an annual study issued by the American organizationFreedom House, downgraded Italy's ranking from 'Free' to 'Partly Free'[56] due to Berlusconi's influence over RAI; among Western European countries in 2005, this ranking was shared only with Turkey.Reporters Without Borders stated that in 2004, "The conflict of interests involving prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his vast media empire was still not resolved and continued to threaten news diversity".[57] In April 2004, theInternational Federation of Journalists joined the criticism, objecting to the passage of a law vetoed byCarlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2003, which critics believed was designed to protect Berlusconi's reported 90% control of the Italian television system.[58]
Berlusconi's influence over RAI became evident when inSofia, Bulgaria he expressed his views on journalistsEnzo Biagi andMichele Santoro[59] and comedianDaniele Luttazzi. Berlusconi said that they "use television as a criminal means of communication". They lost their jobs as a result.[60] This statement was called by critics "Editto Bulgaro".
The TV broadcasting of a satirical program calledRAIot – Armi di distrazione di massa (Raiot-Weapons of mass distraction, where "Raiot" is a mangling ofRAI which sounds like the English riot) was censored in November 2003 after the comedianSabina Guzzanti (daughter ofPaolo Guzzanti, former senator ofForza Italia) made outspoken criticism of the Berlusconi media empire.[61]
Mediaset, Berlusconi's television group, has stated that it uses the same criteria as the public (state-owned) televisionRAI in assigning proper visibility to all the most important political parties and movements (the so-calledpar condicio, Latin for 'equal treatment' or 'Fairness Doctrine')—which has been since often disproved.[62][63]
On 24 June 2009, during theConfindustria young members congress inSanta Margherita Ligure, Italy, Silvio Berlusconi invited advertisers to interrupt or boycott advertising contracts with the magazines and newspapers published byGruppo Editoriale L'Espresso,[64] in particular the newspaperla Repubblica and the news-magazineL'espresso, calling the publishing group "shameless"[64] for fueling the economic crisis by bringing attention to it. He also accused them of making a "subversive attack" against him.[65] The publishing group announced possible legal proceedings against Berlusconi to protect the image and the interests of the group.[65]
In October 2009,Reporters Without Borders Secretary-GeneralJean-François Julliard declared that Berlusconi "is on the verge of being added to our list of Predators of Press Freedom", which would be a first for a European leader. In the event, Berlusconi was not declared a Predator of Press Freedom, but RWB continued to warn of "the continuingconcentration of media ownership, displays of contempt and impatience on the part of government officials towards journalists and their work" in Italy.[66] Julliard added that Italy will probably be ranked last in the European Union in the upcoming edition of the RWBpress freedom index.[67] Italy was in fact ranked last in the EU in RWB's "Press Freedom Index 2010".[66]
Italy is listed as engaged in selective Internet filtering in the social area and no evidence of filtering was found in the political, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas by theOpenNet Initiative in December 2010.[68] Access to almost 7,000 websites is filtered in the country.[69]
Filtering in Italy is applied against child pornography,[70] gambling, and some P2P web sites. Starting in February 2009,The Pirate Bay website andIP address are unreachable from Italy,[71] blocked directly byInternet service providers. A controversial verdict issued by the Court of Bergamo, and later confirmed by the Supreme Court, allowed the blocking, stating that it was useful to prevent copyright infringement. Pervasive filtering is applied to gambling websites that do not have a local license to operate in Italy.[72]
Several legal tools are in development to monitor and censor Internet access and content.[73] Examples include the Romani law, a special law proposed by parliament after Facebook cases of a group against Prime Minister Berlusconi.
Ananti-terrorism law, amended in 2005, by then-Minister of the InteriorGiuseppe Pisanu, after the terrorist attacks inMadrid andLondon,[74] used to restrict the opening of newWi-Fi hotspots.[75] Interested entities were required to first apply for permission to open the hotspot at the localpolice headquarters.[75][76] The law required potential hotspot andInternet café users to present anidentity document.[75][76] This has inhibited the opening of hotspots across Italy,[74] with the number of hotspots five times lower than France and led to an absence ofmunicipal wireless networks.[74] In 2009, only 32% of Italian Internet users had Wi-Fi access.[77] After some unsuccessfulproposals to facilitate the opening of and access to Wi-Fi hotspots,[78] the original 2005 law was repealed in 2011.[79] In 2013, a new text was approved clarifying that operators are not required to identify users, nor to log the traffic.[80]
Access to thewhite nationalist forumStormfront has also been blocked from Italy since 2012.[81]
Duringfascism the following films were prohibited or cut:[82]
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