An Italian judge has ordered a journalist to pay prime minister Giorgia Meloni €5,000 (£4,210) in damages for mocking her height on social media, ruling that it amounted to “body shaming”.
The judge also imposed a suspended fine of €1,200 on Giulia Cortese for her defamatory posts on X from 2021, before Ms Meloni took power.
Ms Cortese reacted to the judgment saying the Italian government had a “serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent”.
“This country seems to get closer to Orbán’s Hungary,” she said on X. “These are bad times for independent journalists and opinion leaders. Let’s hope for better days ahead. We won’t give up!”
In October 2021, when Ms Meloni was still in opposition, Ms Cortese posted a digitally altered picture on X showing the politician standing in front of a bookshelf with a likeness of Benito Mussolini in the background.
Ms Meloni responded that the fake image was of “unique gravity” and that she would be taking legal action.
Ms Cortese deleted the image later in the day after learning it was fake and accused Ms Meloni of starting a “media pillory” against her. “The media pillory you created on your Facebook page qualifies you for what you are: a little woman,” she wrote on X.
In a separate post, she said, “You don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2m tall. I cannot even see you.”
Ms Meloni is 5ft 3in tall, the Italian media reported, not 3ft 9in as Ms Cortese mentioned in her post.
The judge acquitted Ms Cortese over the post carrying the fake photo, but convicted her of defamation over the other two posts. The remarks amounted to “body shaming”, the judge ruled.
The journalist has the option to appeal, but is unsure whether to file one.
Ms Cortese said her conviction over a “joke phrase” was “scandalous”.
“There is a climate of persecution. I don’t feel I have the freedom any more to write about this government, because once you are identified as an inconvenient journalist for this government, they do not let anything pass,” Ms Cortese told The Guardian.
Ms Meloni’s lawyer said she will donate the €5,000 she receives to charity.
Ms Cortese’s case is the latest in a series of defamation suits brought by Ms Meloni against her critics.
Last year, a court in Rome fined prominent author Roberto Saviano €1,000 and legal fees for calling Ms Meloni a “bastard” on a TV show in 2021 for her hardline position on immigration.
A case filed by Ms Meloni against historian and philologist Luciano Canfora will be heard in October. Mr Canfora called her a “neo-Nazi at heart” during a debate in Bari in 2022.
In April, a journalist union alleged that state broadcaster Rai had been “reduced to a megaphone of the government” after it cancelled an anti-fascist speech due to be read by writer Antonio Scurati.