In 7 years over 60 reporters defended for free by Ossigeno, says the lawyer Di Pietro

The coordinator of Ossigeno’s legal department takes stock and mentions some cases. Support in the trials with the help of the English NGO Media Defence

OSSIGENO 9^th June 2022 -.The lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, the coordinator of the legal office of Ossigeno per l’Informazione, speaking at the conference “War, peace, information – The risks of journalists. The case of Ukraine”, at the Casa del Jazz in Rome, stated that since 2015 over 60 journalists have been defended by Ossigeno for free. He talked about the origin of this project, thanks to the financial support of an English NGO, and illustrated the most significant cases and the latest victories.

“Currently – he said – we are able to ensure a legal defence to all those journalists who have no publisher or who have lost a publisher during the legal process. All the services are financed by Media Defence, the London NGO that helps reporters around the world to defend their rights “.

This is the initiative’s seventh year. Ossigeno provides free specialist legal aid to journalists, freelancers and bloggers and it bears the legal expenses necessary to defend them in civil and criminal proceedings for defamation.

Andreas Di Pietro mentioned, among many, the case of Filippo Mele, one of the most recent assisted.  “Mele – he said – is a journalist who had a publisher when he wrote the “incriminating” article, but between the first and second levels of trial the newspaper filed for bankruptcy. On appeal Ossigeno took charge of the case “.

DEB