An Italian journalist, Giulia Cortese, has been ordered to pay Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni €5,000 (£4,210) in damages for defamatory social media posts that mocked Meloni’s height.
The court also imposed a suspended fine of €1,200 on Cortese, ruling that her tweets constituted “body shaming.”
The case stemmed from a 2021 incident when Cortese, while Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party was in opposition, posted a manipulated image of Meloni on X (formerly Twitter).
The image showed Meloni standing in front of a bookshelf with a photo of Benito Mussolini inserted. Meloni condemned the image as “of unique gravity” and vowed to pursue legal action.
Although Cortese later removed the image, she continued to mock Meloni’s height in subsequent tweets, describing her as a “little woman” and stating, “I can’t even see you.”
Meloni’s reported height is 1.63m (5ft 3in), whereas Cortese had claimed Meloni was only 1.2m (3ft 9in) tall.
The court cleared Cortese of wrongdoing for the initial image but found her later tweets defamatory. Cortese has not yet decided whether to appeal the decision.
In response to the verdict, Cortese criticized the Italian government, alleging it has a “serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent,” and compared the situation to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
She expressed frustration with the current administration, stating, “We deserve better than this appalling and shameful government.”
Meloni’s lawyer announced that any damages received would be donated to charity.
Source-BBC
