Ossigeno Annual Report 2025/ Part 3 – Legal Aid and Mirage of Anti-SLAPP Measures

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From the Italian Observatory on Threats to Journalists and News Concealed in Italy Through Violence and Abuse

OSSIGENO March 24^th 2026 – In this Part 3 of the 2025 Report on Threatened Journalists, the focus is on Ossigeno‘s Legal Aid Desk and the phenomenon of abusive legal action against journalists.

Do ten thousand frivolous lawsuits each year seem few to you?

Frivolous lawsuits? Let us also call them SLAPPs

Intimidation, including complaints for alleged unethical behaviour

The Ossigeno Legal Aid Desk, one hundred clients and a 95% success rate

The non-existent Legal Emergency Room

Legal Aid Desk/ Pesaro Company demands €2 million from 2 environmentalists

Legal Aid Desk/ Journalist from Sarzana acquitted after 6 years but with costs to be paid by himself

Legal Aid Desk/ Investigative journalism and the attacks on it through the abuse of legal procedure recounted by the lawyer Di Pietro

Legal Aid Desk/ Investigative journalism and the proliferation of ready-made news

The Mirage of Anti-SLAPP Measures

Prime Minister Meloni: the EU’s Anti-SLAPP Directive will only apply to cross-border cases

Defamation, Anti-SLAPP, European Media Freedom Act. No measures with an immediate impact in sight

Read the other parts of the 2025 Report

Part 1 – 759 journalists threatened in Italy. How. By whom

Part 2 – A dark year with some light on the horizon – Trends and prospects

Part 4 – Italy’s failures to comply with the rule of law – Unheeded recommendations

The Annual Report was edited by Grazia Pia Attolini, Laura Turriziani, Alberto Spampinato