Italian journalist ordered to pay PM Meloni $7,300 for mocking her height
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took legal action against the journalist after the two women clashed on social media.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
ROME – A Milan court has ordered a journalist to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of €5,000 (S$7,300) for making fun of her in a social media post, news agency Ansa and other local media reported.
The journalist, Ms Giulia Cortese, was also given a suspended fine of €1,200 for a jibe on Twitter, now named X, in October 2021 about Ms Meloni’s height that was defined as “body-shaming”.
Ms Meloni took legal action against Ms Cortese after the two women clashed on social media.
Ms Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party was in opposition at the time, took exception when Ms Cortese published a mocked-up photo of her with a picture of the late fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the background.
Ms Cortese responded with further tweets, including one that translates as “you don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2m (4ft) tall. I can’t even see you.”
Meloni’s height is given as between 1.58m and 1.63m on various media websites.
Ms Cortese can appeal against the sentence, and Ms Meloni’s lawyer said the prime minister would donate to charity any damages she eventually receives.
A high number of lawsuits brought against journalists was cited in 2024 by Reporters Without Borders, which relegated Italy five places to 46th in its 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
Ms Meloni is not new to taking journalists to court. In 2023, a Rome court fined best-selling author Roberto Saviano €1,000, plus legal expenses, after he insulted her on television in 2021 over her hardline stance on illegal immigration.
Journalists at Italian state broadcaster RAI went on strike in May in protest against the “suffocating control” over their work by Ms Meloni’s government. REUTERS
