Italy. Journalist sued by a former deputy mayor. Ossigeno provide him legal aid

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What are the accusations against Roberto Pomi and why do they appear specious – In 8 years 93 assisted by the Ossigeno Legal Desk

OSSIGENO March 27^th  2025 – The Legal Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione  (more on the service here) has decided to take up the legal defence of the journalist Roberto Pomi, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper “La Fune” of Viterbo (www.lafune.eu), sued for libel  by a former municipal administrator for a news article published by his newspaper on local political events. Roberto Pomi was summoned by the Carabinieri (the Italian police)who notified him of a notice of investigation citing his alleged failure to check the publication deemed offensive. Ossigeno has entrusted the defence to the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, coordinator of the Legal Desk.

OSSIGENO has decided to assume the costs of the defence considering that this legal action is reckless and specious, being based on assertions that do not take due account of the facts and the right to report and which put the chief editor of a newspaper possessing modest resources in difficulty by forcing him to bear  defence costs to prove his innocence. In Ossigeno‘s opinion, this case falls within the category of specious complaints, legal actions promoted to limit public participation, those called SLAPPS by the European Union. 

Such cases deserve public solidarity and the intervention of Ossigeno’s Legal Desk  which, in eight years, with the support of Media Defence, has helped 93 Italian journalists, bloggers and activists defend themselves in court. 

The disputed article entitled “The Court of Auditors’ investigation risks triggering a political earthquake. Among the councillors for assets of the last 20 years there are also big names from the opposition” was published on October 18^th  2024. The article reports that the accounting magistrates are investigating in order to ascertain financial damage caused by poor administrative management and points out that, considering the time frame, the plaintiff could also have been investigated, as she was deputy mayor and councillor for assets when Leonardo Michelini was mayor, in office from 2013 to 2018. 

The local press of Viterbo had given the first news of the Court of Auditors’ investigation in March 2024, making it known that the investigation was into an alleged shortfall of around 400,000 euros for unpaid rent to the municipality from the rental of apartments and shops. 

The time frame covered by the accounting investigations was revealed  by the mayor of Viterbo Chiara Frontini, in a session of the city council on the very day of the publication of the article in “La Fune”.

The newspaper had therefore recalled who had administered the municipal assets in that period and therefore could be included among the alleged responsible parties, noting that consequently it could concern both political figures  that currently administer the Municipality, and those who have administered it previously and are at present in opposition.

The disputed article, therefore,  assembled the  objective facts of public interest and analysed the possible effects that the investigation could have on the local political scene, It respected the ethical duty of restrained language and did not use any derogatory terms towards the plaintiff, instead defining her in positive terms as “a big name in local politics” and one of the “two women of great weight who today sit on the opposition benches but who could rightly aspire to returning in future  as protagonists”. ASP

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