Current:Home > BackJournalist ordered to pay over $5,000 to Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni for making fun of her height-LoTradeCoin
Journalist ordered to pay over $5,000 to Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni for making fun of her height
View Date:2024-12-23 20:34:32
A judge in Milan has ordered an Italian journalist to pay 5,000 euros (nearly $5,500) in damages to Premier Giorgia Meloni for making fun of her height in social media posts.
The judge ruled on Wednesday that two social media posts by journalist Giulia Cortese, who was also handed a suspended fine of 1,200 euros ($1,300), amounted to "body shaming."
In October 2021, when Meloni was still in opposition, Cortese posted a digitally altered picture on X, showing the far-right politician standing in front of a bookshelf with an image of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the background.
Meloni reacted on Facebook by saying that the fake image was of "unique gravity" and announced that she would take legal action.
In the exchange that followed, Cortese described Meloni as a "little woman." She then wrote in a separate post: "You don't scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you're only 1.2 meters tall. I can't even see you."
Italian media report that Meloni's height is between 5 feet, 2 inches, and 5 feet, 4 inches, though she has never officially disclosed it.
Reacting to the judge's verdict, Cortese wrote on social media late Thursday that Italy's government "has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent." She added that she may consider appealing the verdict.
In a follow-up post on Friday, Cortese wrote: "This government worries about nonsense, it is probably just a clumsy and desperate move to try to hide its general and deep inadequacy."
It's not the first time that Meloni has taken legal action against a journalist or someone who had criticized her publicly. Her far-right government has been accused by the center-left opposition of using legal action to put pressure on journalists and critics.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Italy fell five spots to 46th place on its 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
Meloni's lawyer said she would donate the 5,000 euros to charity if the sentence against Cortese is confirmed and the money is paid.
- In:
- Social Media
- Judge
- Italy
veryGood! (4635)
Related
- Inter Miami's MLS playoff failure sets stage for Messi's last act, Alexi Lalas says
- These Secrets About Grease Are the Ones That You Want
- This airline is weighing passengers before they board international flights
- Dive Into These Photos From Jon Hamm’s Honeymoon With Wife Anna Osceola
- Judge sets date for 9/11 defendants to enter pleas, deepening battle over court’s independence
- Britney Spears Condemns Security Attack as Further Evidence of Her Not Being Seen as an Equal Person
- Why Paul Wesley Gives a Hard Pass to a Vampire Diaries Reboot
- Germany’s New Government Had Big Plans on Climate, Then Russia Invaded Ukraine. What Happens Now?
- Review: 'Emilia Pérez' is the most wildly original film you'll see in 2024
- Q&A: How White Flight and Environmental Injustice Led to the Jackson, Mississippi Water Crisis
Ranking
- Harriet Tubman posthumously named a general in Veterans Day ceremony
- Taylor Swift Changed This Lyric on Speak Now Song Better Than Revenge in Album's Re-Recording
- In Pakistan, 33 Million People Have Been Displaced by Climate-Intensified Floods
- Why Paul Wesley Gives a Hard Pass to a Vampire Diaries Reboot
- 'Dangerous and unsanitary' conditions at Georgia jail violate Constitution, feds say
- Nueva página web muestra donde se propone contaminar en Houston
- Is greedflation really the villain?
- America is going through an oil boom — and this time it's different
Recommendation
-
AI could help scale humanitarian responses. But it could also have big downsides
-
Andrew Tate is indicted on human trafficking and rape charges in Romania
-
YouTube will no longer take down false claims about U.S. elections
-
Inside Clean Energy: Think Solar Panels Don’t Work in Snow? New Research Says Otherwise
-
More human remains from Philadelphia’s 1985 MOVE bombing have been found at a museum
-
Live Nation and Ticketmaster tell Biden they're going to show fees up front
-
Hollywood writers still going strong, a month after strike began
-
Warming Trends: A Comedy With Solar Themes, a Greener Cryptocurrency and the Underestimated Climate Supermajority