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La Repubblica calls on global community to fight Berlusconi's libel action

Posted: 25/09/09 By: Judith Townend

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La Repubblica, Italy's second biggest daily newspaper, now has more than 420,000 names on its petition against the '10 questions' legal action launched by Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

In Italy Berlusconi's lawyers have sued La Repubblica for allegedly defaming the prime minister by repeating its questions about his private life and political aspirations each day.

In an interview with the Paris-based Editors' Weblog published today, Repubblica editor Ezio Mauro said he did not believe Berlusconi would be successful. "This is the first time that, in the memory of a free country, a politician takes a lawsuit because of questions that were asked of him," he stated in an editorial.

International newspaper editors who have signed the petition so far include: Roger Alton (Independent), Lionel Barber (Financial Times), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Die Zeit), Eric Fottorino (Le Monde), Laurent Joffrin (Libération), Hans Werner Kilz (Suddeutsche Zeitung), Javier Moreno (El Pais), Dmitri Muratov (Novaja Gazeta), Denis Olivennes (Le Nouvel Observateur), Alan Rusbridger (Guardian) and John Witherow (Sunday Times).

A public demonstration will be held in Rome on October 3.

"The libel action against Repubblica is the last in a long list of attacks against this daily which can only be seen as attempts at silencing the free press, at benumbing public opinion, at removing us from the international information scene and ultimately at making our country the exception to the rule of democracy," states the petition.

"Repubblica is spreading the word both in Italy and abroad since we believe that this is an issue of global interest," Raffaella Menichini, deputy editor of the Repubblica website, told Journalism.co.uk.

"Mr Berlusconi's attitude towards media - particularly when its coverage involves the conflict of interests in Italy between his media and political power, or what he believes are his 'personal' problems - is a matter of concern not only for the Italian people, but for any individual or organisation that cares about freedom of expression worldwide.

"That's why so many editors of international media organisations, writers, intellectuals, jurists, artists, and hundreds of thousand of citizens have supported the petition so far."

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