Italy. Two of hundreds SLAPPs against two journalists dismissed after years

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A defamation lawsuit against Giusi Cavallo and Michele Finizio as well as an acquittal of an unfounded accusation from 2018

OSSIGENO, June 23, 2025 – In recent days, two of the hundred criminal proceedings brought against journalists Michele Finizio and Giusi Cavallo, editor-in-chief and journalist, respectively, of the online newspaper Basilicata24.it have concluded favourably. Finizio and Cavallo recently received financial assistance from Ossigeno to partially cover their legal defence costs (read here).

The Potenza Examining Judge dismissed the lawsuit filed in 2023 by Angelo Chiorazzo, a regional councillor from Basilicata, over a news article. (Read here for the details).

Another judge acquitted the two journalists of the abstruse charges brought by three men who attacked them in 2018 in Tolve (Potenza) while they were inspecting a site for a news story on the proliferation of wind turbines. The prosecutor had requested an eight-month prison sentence for the journalists and a €516 fine for their two colleagues. The judge, however, acquitted the two journalists because the evidence did not constitute an  offence, and acquitted their two colleagues because there was no evidence. The attackers were charged and put on trial, but were not convicted, due to the statute of limitations (read here the Ossigeno story).

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