The Italian government has proposed a bill gathering all of the laws regarding the publishing industry in one text. The bill must be discussed in Parliament however since it isn’t included in this government’s electoral program, it’s highly unlikely that it will make the agenda.
Nevertheless, the bill is very controversial and is seen as an attempt of repression by many Italian bloggers and commenters. In fact, it begins by defining an editorial product as “any product aimed to inform, educate, divulge or entertain and which will be published regardless of its form or distribution”. This law does not affect advertising, music or video. This is a very broad definition and could include every page on the Internet, except company websites. As such, it can become dangerous because it can be interpreted in many different ways.
The second controversial aspect regards the fact the everyone publishing an editorial product must be registered in the Registro degli Operatori della Comunicazione (Roc) which is mantained by the Italian Communication Authority. The bill states that this is to “protect transparency, competition and pluralism” in the sector. Beppe Grillo wrote that you need to have a publishing company and an editor in chief even if you publish a blog. This isn’t the case: the bill clearly says that a single person can be registered and delegates the Communication Authority for the determination of who must register at the Roc. The text is ambiguous and it’s likely that the Authority will not ask millions of bloggers to register for the simple fact the it would have to deal with so many requests. It also doesn’t make any sense to force a teenager to fill in forms just to publish his personal blog.
Thirdly, the bill provides for a stricter application of defamation laws. The bill states that whoever publishes an editorial product is liable as an editor in chief and that means that he is responsible for every word that is published including, in the case of blogs, comments. Moreover, in Italy the defamation by press is considered a crime more severe than the defamation by a single person and that means that the punishment will be more severe. Many bloggers consider this an intimidation.
The bill has 32 articles: many of them regard money that the Italian government is giving and will continue to donate to newspapers and periodical press. Moreover, if the text will be approved as is, online newspapers will also recieve these gifts. Perhaps we should concentrate on this aspect as well which surely does not protect “transparency, competition and pluralism”.
Technorati tags: beppe+grillo, newspaper, italian+government, prodi+levi
10 responses so far ↓
Lian Dyer // Oct 24, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Hello,
When you say “the bill clearly says that a single person can be registered”, do you mean Article 6, Item 4? The text (in Italian) states:
“7.4 The Authority […] adopts a regulation for […] criteria of individuation of ’soggetti’ and companies bound to registration”.
The interpretation of “soggetti” can be “normal people”, or not.
I think it is “normal people”.
However, I took a look at the registration procedure, and nobody is sure that the”director” (”direttore responsabile”) can be the same as the person who is registering to ROC. I don’t know.
Levi said blogs won’t need registration. Therefore all we can do now is wait!
PS I’m Italian
GoodbyereCAPTCHA WP Error:incorrect-captcha-sol
La psicologia // Oct 24, 2007 at 11:04 pm
After bloggers’ reaction some important italian Ministers such as Antonio di Pietro and Paolo Gentiloni declared that they will oppose to this law.
It seems that the document is going to be modified soon, or even canceled.
Lorenzo Nocoke Civitavecchia // Oct 25, 2007 at 12:05 am
RICARDO LEVI = AGENT SMITH
It seems evident how the Matrix creators have been inspired by the evil Ricardo Levi to choose the face of “Agent Smith”
Please, take a look here!
http://noalcarbone.blogspot.com/2007/10/ddl-levi-prodi-sul-palcoscenico.html#links
Luca Rosaldi // Oct 25, 2007 at 7:57 am
“…the bill clearly says that a single person can be registered and delegates the Communication Authority for the determination of who must register at the Roc. The text is ambiguous and it’s likely that the Authority will not ask millions of bloggers to register for the simple fact the it would have to deal with so many requests. It also doesn’t make any sense to force a teenager to fill in forms just to publish his personal blog.”
You’re right, it’s likely that the goverment’s not asking teenagers a registration for starting a blog. But the point is: they still could do that.
So here’s the scenario: I start a blog on my favourite football team - fine, nobody asks me for a registration. But, should I start a blog on how the political class in Italy is old and corrupted - oh, now I need a registration and the signature of a journalist to go on. Too bad I don’t know any, I’d better stop or I’ll eventually end up in jail.
Let’s make it clear: Prodi and Levi would want to get control of bloggers and the ppl over the Internet. They don’t seem to give a -blam!- of what bloggers (read “millions of young Italian people and voters”) think, still THEY FEAR THEM. And try to shut their mouth.
They tried to keep things quiet, to make a law without them knowing, thoughout ambiguity. They failed, because of Beppe Grillo who informed the citizens of what was happening under their nose. And now they say - ooops, we didn’t read the text of the law very carefully… man, it’s you who wrote it. Who would ever believe such B.S.?!reCAPTCHA WP Error:incorrect-captcha-sol
Nicola Mattina // Oct 25, 2007 at 8:43 am
@Luca Rosaldi. The Italian blogosphere was discussing the DDL before Grillo and the clown did not inform anyone, because he is saying things that are not true. It is an eccessive interpretation of the bill: Italy is not China or Birmania.
Dego // Oct 25, 2007 at 9:09 am
I’m Italian blogger. The situation in Italy is very very serious (pls take a look at http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2732802.ece and http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=a4zjTEYySTg) But I want to point out we have strong democacy defensive tools (roman law is a light in the world from 2000 years). Moreover we adere also to European Union regulation. We can accept constructive critics from all over the globe. But I want to clarify we cannot accep any lesson from US bloggers. USA is sistematically violating international laws amd uman rights from at leat last ten year. Afganistan and Iraq and under everybody eyes. Just in Italy during recent years many individuals are been stollen from CIA agents and tortured for years. Moreover as a conseguence of our lost in II would war 60 year ago even today we are compelled to host 90 USA nucler weapons on our territory in violation of international egreements. In Italy we have mafia wide spread in south, in USA mafia is simply inside White House. So warm invitation to all US bloggers: please shame about your false democracy and resolve your internal problems before thinking to criticize Italy. Thanks
Nicola Mattina // Oct 25, 2007 at 9:19 am
@Deco. Se tu fossi una persona attenta, ti saresti accorto che questo blog, anche se in inglese, è scritto da un italiano. Il tuo anti-americanismo è semplicemente patetico e anacronistico.
Luca Rosaldi // Oct 25, 2007 at 9:52 am
@Nicola Mattina. I’m not an active blogger, but what you could define as a “casual Internet user”. Personally, I didn’t know what was up with the Prodi-Levi until I read it in Grillo’s Blog.
Now I’m not here to defend Beppe Grillo (or “the clown”, as you call it). Of course he’s exagerating things, it’s in his nature - he’s a comedian, after all -, but the point is very true:
the fact that they won’t exploit the DDL as a repression tool doesn’t mean that they COULDN’T. If you seed the field, you’ll probably want to grow something on it, one day. It’s the principle which is anti-democratical.
As I said before, I don’t believe the government was unaware of the possible implications of the Prodi-Levi. But if they did, that’d still be something annoying. Because that would mean politicians don’t even know what they’re talking about, when they make a DDL. I don’t really know what’s worse.
P.S. Just to point it out, I’m not with Berlusconi or anywhere on the Right side. I voted for Prodi, but never will do the same mistake again. For the new elections, I think I’m voting for someone who’s younger than… like… 70 years old. If such a person exists in Italy.reCAPTCHA WP Error:incorrect-captcha-sol
Lian Dyer // Oct 25, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Salve Nicola, mi ero accorto dell’autore italiano solo dopo aver commentato
However, let me write in English for your readers who understand MY English 
I just wanted to correct my mistake: it was article 6, not 7. I also invite you to read the text added by Levi to article 7 (this time it’s really the 7 
because it excludes sites without “an entrepreneurial organization of work”. An enterprise, according to Wikipedia, is any “exchange of goods or services”: if one “sells” informations (e.g. online tutorial) on a personal site, is he an editor? If it was the case, wouldn’t it be absurd? And what if the “price” is zero? Isn’t it an “exchange for free”? I don’t know the answers to my own questions…
GoodbyereCAPTCHA WP Error:incorrect-captcha-sol
Alex Roe // Oct 31, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hi,
I’m a blogger - not Italian, but resident in Italy, who was both shocked and worried by this attempt to bring bloggers to heel in Italy. The mainstream press is already well controlled, as are most TV channels. The introduction of such a new law could be seen as a way to restrict blog freedom in the same way.
From what I understand, and I could be wrong, this Levi-Prodi (Prodi of all people!) proposal for a new law has been abandoned.Quite possibly as a result of the uproar that its introduction caused. I hope so.
I do think bloggers need to be responsible be careful what they write - but to force them to register just appears to me to be an overt attempt to stifle freedom of speech.
I hope this law has ‘died the death’ and that nothing similar ever comes out of the woodwork again.
Regards,
Alex
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