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Since 2015, Ossigeno per l’Informazione’s Legal Help Desk has offered a free legal assistance service to journalists and bloggers. This page explains what the service consists of, who can request assistance and how, who it supports, and for which proceedings.

  • LEVEL A):

This service continues to provide specialized and totally free legal aid to journalists, freelancers and bloggers who, despite having acted correctly and in good faith, have to face criminal proceedings for defamation or other crimes without indemnification by their publishers.

  • LEVEL B):

This service envisages, for journalists, freelancers and bloggers who already have a reliable defence counsel, a financial contribution to support the legal costs necessary to defend themselves in civil or criminal proceedings for defamation.

  • LEVEL C):

For journalists, freelancers and bloggers who have suffered acts of violence or threats, or other crimes aimed at limiting their freedom to conduct journalism activity. This service provides totally free legal aid which allows the journalist to stand in court as the victim  of a crime, thus being able to bring a civil action and obtain compensation for the damage.

All three legal aid services are funded by Media Defence, the London-based NGO that helps reporters from all over the world defend their rights. The legal aid fund is open to financing from other organizations and professional bodies. The Legal Desk of Ossigeno is coordinated by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, an expert in information and communication law and the legal consultant of Ossigeno per l’Informazione.

To request legal aid, write to the email address:  sportellolegaleossigeno@gmail.com

Eligibility Conditions of access to the legal aid service

Requests for legal aid or economic support will be evaluated on the basis of the seriousness of the incident, the financial and working conditions of the applicant and consideration of the strategic value of assistance against reckless lawsuits. Those assisted will undertake to promote the activities carried out by Ossigeno per l’Informazione in defence of freedom of information and in defence of the journalism profession. In addition to free legal aid, Ossigeno also provides free legal advice and opinions, in line with the spirit of solidarity of the initiative.

  • LIRIO ABBATE: Civil case underway before the Court of Rome against a member of the Chamber of Criminal Lawyers in Rome. The summons was presented by Avv. Giovanni Pagliarulo for a post on Facebook published on October 14th 2015. In August 2020, news arrived of Lirio Abbate’s first-instance conviction. The journalist filed an appeal, not agreeing with the reasons that led the Civil Court of Rome to find him guilty of defamation.
  • SANDRA AMURRI: On April 30th 2012 Sandra Amurri was convicted of libel against the Prosecuting Magistrate Dr. Lorenzo Matassa for an article published in L’Unita on December 3rd 2006 entitled: “Smears and golden reimbursements: the “theatre” of Scaramella “. Ossigeno per l’Informazione has taken up the journalist’s defence in view of the extent of the appeal not yet established.
  • ROS BELFORD: In December 2018 the English journalist was sued by the Mayor of Agrigento Lillo Firetto for an unappreciated review of the Sicilian city contained in a well-known Rough Guide published in Italy by Feltrinelli.
  • MARCO D’AGUANNO: On October 29th 2018 (in a sentence issued on December 28th 2018) the alleged assailants of the video reporter Marco D’Aguanno were acquitted in a dubious procedure by the Criminal Court of Cassino. After the first degree trial the journalist turned to Ossigeno per l’Informazione for the appeal proposal. The lawyer Di Pietro filed the appeal on the 11th February 2019.
  • FEDERICO MARCONI and PAOLO MARCHETTI : On the 6th July 2020 the Court of Rome sentenced Giuliano Castellino, leader of Forza Nuova, and Vincenzo Nardulli of Avanguardia Nazionale  each to five years and six months of imprisonment, finding them guilty of aggravated robbery from the two journalists Federico Marconi and Paolo Marchetti. Ossigeno will continue to deal with the defence of the two journalists, now also subject to the accusation of slander, with the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro. The alleged offence of slander arose from two defamation lawsuits that Vincenzo Nardulli presented the day after L’Espresso had published reports of the events that occurred in the Verano Cemetery on the 7th January 2019. The truth of the facts reported by the two victims Marconi and Marchetti and published by the L’Espresso has now been confirmed by the substantial first-degree sentence for the crime of robbery. In addition to providing free legal defence to the two journalists, Ossigeno will act as a civil party independently and directly to protect and defend the freedom of the press.
  • MARIA FERRANTE: The chief editor of the news aggregator web portal dedicated to the re-publication of news of interest to Italians residing abroad, was sentenced in the first instance on October 27th 2020, together with the interviewees, for defamation allegedly committed through the publication of a very critical press release against the Italian Consul General in Marseille who had requested 50,000 euro in damages. The facts: on January 17th  2017, a “rassemblement pacifique”  (a peaceful protest) was organized in Marseille both by  Comites, the representative body of Italians abroad in collaboration with the diplomatic consular representations, and by Italians residing  in Marseille. They wanted to peacefully protest against the Consul General in Marseille against some of his measures and attitudes that had created a lot of discontent among Italian expatriates. The press release that followed the protest was deemed defamatory in the first instance and the chief editor Ferrante turned to Ossigeno per l’Information for help with the appeal, which was submitted on 21st April 2021.
  • FABIO BUTERA: Ossigeno is assisting journalist Fabio Butera in his appeal before the Court of Appeal of Venice. He was convicted in the first instance for defamation for not having removed readers’ comments published under a post on his Facebook page in which he had criticized the author of a news article entitled: “Asylum seekers want to have Sky (Pay-TV), protests begin”, published shortly before on the website of the “Giornale di Vicenza”. Fabio Butera had difficulty believing that this request by asylum seekers was true. He therefore asked for confirmation from the Police Headquarters and the Prefecture, He therefore requested confirmation from the Police Headquarters, the Prefecture and the author of the article himself, without obtaining any convincing confirmation. Now, Fabio Butera had been acquitted for his critical post but was convicted for not having removed the offensive comments against the journalist of the “Giornale di Vicenza”. Fabio Butera has therefore filed an appeal and is defended by lawyers Andrea Di Pietro and Emilia Rosa Faraglia.
  • PAOLO CUCCHIARELLI: Loredana, Alessandro and Marco Fachini, heirs of Massimiliano Fachini, who died on February 3rd 2000, began a civil action on June 28th 2021 against Paolo Cucchiarelli, a well-known and respected investigative journalist. The civil case began with a mediation procedure before the Civitavecchia Bar Association, aimed at obtaining compensation for the damage allegedly caused by statements, considered serious and defamatory, written in the investigative journalism book entitled “Ustica and Bologna, an attack on Italy” published in June 2020 on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Ustica disaster. The legal action also concerns the publishers La Nave di Teseo. Ossigeno has taken up the defence of the author Paolo Cucchiarelli represented by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro as Ossigeno considers this request for compensation vexatious and reckless.
  • ROSSELLA PUCCIO: Ossigeno per l’Informazione will support the defence and legal aid of the freelance journalist Rossella Puccio, represented by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, who was attacked on August 15th 2020 by a large group. The serious attack occurred while the journalist reported an intervention by the police to clear the beach of Punta Barcarello of tents erected in violation of the anti Covid prohibitions. She was struck with kicks, punches and head-butts in the face, while people who witnessed the incident were indifferent, did not defend the journalist and refused to intervene. Fortunately the police arrived and saved the journalist and her friend who was also attacked after trying to defend Puccio. The criminal trial against the attackers will begin in January.
  • FEDERICO MARCONI and PAOLO MARCHETTI (3): In 2021 the neo-Fascists of Forza Nuova, Giuliano Castellino and Vincenzo Nardulli challenged the first degree sentence whereby they were sentenced to five and a half years of imprisonment for the offences of robbery and injury of the journalists Federico Marconi and Paolo Marchetti.  The lawyer Andrea Di Pietro who represented the journalists in the first instance trial will continue to represent them also in the appeal case. The two journalists of L’Espresso were physically attacked while reporting on a Fascist event in the monumental cemetery of Verano in Rome on the 7th January 2019. Ossigeno has also been admitted to intervene on its own behalf in the trial in defence of the right to freedom of expression. This criminal trial has great national significance and it is important to continue to assist the two journalists free of charge to keep the public’s attention focussed on the issue of crimes against journalists.
  • MARCO ANTONELLIS: The Legal Help Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione, which operates in collaboration with Media Defence, has taken on the defence of the journalist Marco Antonellis, a well-known journalist expert on issues regarding the Rai broadcaster, entrusting it to the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro. In April 2021, the journalist was sued by Fabrizio Salini, at the time CEO of Rai, who accused him of defamation aggravated by the use of television, in relation to an interview that the journalist gave for a report on “Striscia la notizia” broadcast on November 30th 2020. In this report, with the usual satirical tone of Striscia, some spending decisions of Rai are criticized, in particular with reference to the appointments of new network directors, deemed superfluous. The criminal proceedings resulting from this complaint are pending at the Court of Rome and are in the preliminary investigation phase.
  • CRISTIANO DEGNI: The mayor of Santa Marinella (Rome), Pietro Tidei, has been sent for trial by the Court of Civitavecchia. The trial began on January 11th 2024 and is still ongoing. The mayor is accused of having defamed the journalist Cristiano Degni who sued him for some comments published on Facebook that were seriously denigrating his person and his professionalism. Ossigeno, in collaboration with Media Defence, has joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party, to protect freedom of the press and to support the reasons of the journalist, who has been publicly accused of having committed serious and ethically unsound acts.
  • PASQUALE NAPOLITANO: Ossigeno has taken on the defence of the journalist Pasquale Napolitano, a collaborator of various newspapers (Il Giornale, il Roma, Panorama and others), in the appeal against his conviction for libel  pronounced on the 7th May 2024 by the Court of Nola, Naples. The journalist had been sentenced in the first instance to a sentence of 8 months of imprisonment but suspended  acknowledging that there were mitigating circumstances and the payment of legal costs. The trial arose from a formal complaint by the lawyer Domenico Visone, former president of the Nola Bar Association, and three councillors of the same organization, who felt defamed by some articles by Napolitano in 2020. According to the defamation charge, the journalist in his reporting allegedly implied an unjustifiable obstructionist attitude, regarding the delay of Domenico Visone in resigning as president of the Bar Association following the formal no-confidence vote expressed by the majority of lawyers registered with the Association. In particular, the incriminating sentence was the one describing how Visone allegedly held the Nola Bar Association hostage by not resigning a year earlier when he had lost the majority. The appeal was filed by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro on October 15th  2024.
  • GIORDANO CONTU: Professional journalist Giordano Contu was a collaborator of the Avionews news agency. The journalist was sued by a pilot of the airline ITA Airways who believed he was defamed by a news item about him. On May 30th  2022, Giordano Contu had written in an article that an ITA Airways pilot, whom he did not name, had alarmed the airline because he had not responded to calls from air traffic controllers for dozens of minutes. The prolonged silence had raised fears of a hijacking. Subsequently, the airline fired the pilot for disciplinary reasons, accusing him of having allegedly “fallen asleep” at the controls. In September 2023, the court ordered the pilot’s reinstatement because the event  of falling asleep had not been proven. Giordano Contu was sued for initially referring to the pilot’s “allegedly falling asleep”, which he later denied.
  • LINDA MAGGIORI (2): Linda Maggiori, a blogger and environmental activist from Faenza (Ravenna), has been sued for defamation by a city councillor in relation to a post she published on social media. In the post, the blogger criticized the designers of the San Martino neighbourhood in Faenza, a development  of terraced houses that has been flooded three times in the last two years following the overflowing of the nearby Marzeno stream, resulting in the evacuation of residents and extensive damage. The journalist described the neighbourhood, designed in 2005, as “a death trap in the event of a flood” because it is composed  of “low houses, with ground floors and basements” and because “the Marzano stream is just a few meters away”. At the time,” she added, “nobody thought about it” and now the designers should admit the design error and apologize to the residents. In particular, she asked the city councillor and former councillor of Faenza, who was part of that design studio, to publicly apologize.
  • CINZIA SAVIOLI: Cinzia Savioli, a blogger from Faenza (Ravenna), a well-known environmental activist, rejected the peremptory request for compensation from a construction company that on February 8th  2024 had asked her to pay 50,000 euro within eight days for alleged damage to its property and image. The compensation had been requested with a registered letter in which it was emphasized that, in the event of non-compliance, legal action would be taken against her. The damage, according to the construction company, was caused by the public statements with which the blogger disputed  the methods of implementing of the building renovation project of the “Ghilana” park, which involved the demolition and reconstruction of some old buildings located in Faenza. Cinzia Savioli, as also supported by other environmentalists, maintained that the proposed works put at risk the survival of a colony of hundreds of wild hedgehogs that could die under the rubble. The hedgehog is a protected animal species in Italy because it is considered at risk of extinction.
  • DANIELE BRUNETTI: Criminal trial at the Court of La Spezia which saw Brunetti acquitted on February 20th  2017. The lawsuit had been filed by the Mayor of Portovenere for a post published on Facebook on September 20th  2014.
  • ANTONIO ROCCUZZO: Criminal trial pending at the Court of Rome, transferred for territorial jurisdiction by the Public Prosecutor of Reggio Emilia on the 9th March 2017. The lawsuit was filed by Ines Sartori for an article published on the fattoquotidiano.it blog in date June 13, 2015. Roccuzzo was acquitted of the defamation charge on January 12th  2018 by the preliminary investigating magistrate  of Rome.
  • CLAUDIA ALDI: Criminal appeal trial with sentence in the first instance of the Court of Perugia to a fine and compensation for damages of 25,000 euro. The appeal trial  ended with a full acquittal of the journalist and the rescindment of the civil rulings. The lawsuit had been filed by members of the Judicial Police of Grosseto for an article that appeared in the newspaper Corriere della Maremma on the 18th April 2003.
  • RAFFAELLA FANELLI: Criminal trial pending at the Court of Milan. Opposition to the Public Prosecutor’s request for dismissal presented by the offended party, the heirs of Paolo Signorelli, formerly of the neo-Fascist NAR and Ordine Nuovo. The lawsuit was for an article that appeared on the La Repubblica.it website on the 25th May 2015. Raffaella Fanelli was acquitted of the charge of defamation by order of the preliminary investigating magistrate of Milan on 13th February 2018.
  • STEFANIA LIMITI: The journalist was accused of the crime pursuant to art. 371 bis of the Italian criminal code for her refusing to disclose the identity of her trusted source to prosecutors. The journalist was acquitted on the 12th January 2018 by the Criminal Court of Rome because there was no evidence of an offence.
  • GABRIELE COCCHI: On the 11th October 2016, the journalist was sued for libel by the former chief executive  of ATC (the municipal transport company of La Spezia) Renato Goretta, for two articles published in the online newspaper Gazzettadellaspezia. it on the 12th July and 23rd July 2016. The journalist was acquitted of the charge of defamation by order of the preliminary investigating magistrate of La Spezia on the 11th January 2019.
  • RAFFAELLA COSENTINO: Criminal case pending at the Court of Rome, transferred by territorial jurisdiction from Crotone on the 11th May 2016. The lawsuit was filed by Pasquale Poerio for an article published on the L’Espresso website on the 2nd October 2015. The journalist was acquitted of the defamation charge with an order of the preliminary investigating magistrate of Rome with notification on the 14th January 2019. Furthermore, Pasquale Poerio was denounced for slander against the journalist by the Roman Public Prosecutor who himself requested the dismissal of the case for  defamation.
  • GIULIA CERINO: The journalist was sued for a television report  broadcast on the La7 channel on the 11th June 2015 as part of the Announo program produced by Michele Santoro’s company. The report reconstructed, through interviews, the story of the death of Federica Monti, which occurred from a road accident caused by the drunkenness of the driver of the vehicle, returning from an evening at a disco. The driver of the vehicle is the person who filed the defamation lawsuit. The journalist was acquitted of the defamation charge by order of the preliminary investigating magistrate of Velletri on the 11th March 2019.
  • ENRICO FIERRO: On the 18th October 2006 the journalist was sued for the offence of aggravated libel by the then European Parliamentarian in the Italian Christian Democratic party (UDC) Aldo Patriciello for an article that appeared in L’Unità on the 20th July 2006 entitled “Police discover bribes: then transferred”. Fierro was indicted on March 18th  2008 and was then acquitted by the Criminal Court of Rome on January 14th  2013. Nonetheless, the civil party presented an appeal which was set for December 14th  2018, but in the meantime Fierro lost his indemnity from the publisher of L’Unità. The last hearing of the Appeal Judgment was held on the 29th October 2019, which ended, also for the Second Degree, with an acquittal sentence.
  • CARLO D’ADAMO: On the 1st April 2021 the journalist Carlo D’Adamo, sued by the Emilian entrepreneur Luca Razzaboni and defended by the Legal Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione  was acquitted by the Bologna Court of Appeal. The Public Prosecutor had asked for an 8-month prison sentence. His three articles reported the story of the toxic sludge stored in San Giovanni in Persiceto (Bologna) published in 2014 by controcorrente.Globalist.it
  • FEDERICO MARCONI and PAOLO MARCHETTI: On the 6th  July 2020, the Court of Rome sentenced Giuliano Castellino, leader of Forza Nuova, and Vincenzo Nardulli of Avanguardia Nazionale to five years and six months in prison, recognizing them guilty of robbery of  the journalist Federico Marconi and the photographer Paolo Marchetti, attacked in Rome on the 7th January 2019, at the Verano Cemetery, where they had been sent by the weekly l’Espresso, to document a gathering of far-right militants commemorating the deaths of far right activists in via Acca Larentia. Federico Marconi and Paolo Marchetti, defended  in court by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, obtained full justice, together with compensation for damages. Furthermore, Ossigeno per l’Informazione filed a civil action to protect the freedom of information, seriously compromised by the evidence shown at the trial.
  • ROSSELLA RICCHIUTI: The journalist had been indicted for an article published on the Ossigeno per l’Information website and was under investigation by the Postal Police. The Prosecutor of Rome conducted the case. The journalist was accused of the offences of defamation,  irresponsible publication of documents covered by the secrecy of investigation and the disclosure of official secrets. The article was published on May 30th  2014. On February 4th  2021, the investigating magistrate of Rome acquitted the journalist of the charge of libel which saw her accused together with Federica Angeli and 12 other journalists.
  • CONCITA DE GREGORIO: she was sued together with Marco Travaglio in 2008 by Mediaset S.p.A. Previously defended by lawyer  Andrea Di Pietro, she was  acquitted in the first instance by the Court of Rome on the 9th March 2015. The Public Prosecutor has not challenged the acquittal. But Mediaset S.p.A., instead, challenged the acquittal sentence and Concita De Gregorio was again acquitted at the appeal stage on the 4th May 2021.
  • MARILU’ MASTROGIOVANNI: the journalist will appear as a civil party in the criminal trial for aggravated defamation against the people who insulted and threatened her on the occasion of the publication of investigative journalism  which revealed suspicious relationships  between representatives of the local public administration and some individuals linked to the mafia in Puglia. The criminal proceedings were pending at the Criminal Court of Lecce. Ossigeno for Information, through the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, requested and obtained the right to appear as a civil party to protect threatened journalists,  in the trial against the attackers of the journalist.
  • STEFANO ORIGONE: Public Prosecutor Gabriella Dotto had indicted 4 police officers from the Genoa mobile department, accused of being the perpetrators of the violent beating of La Repubblica journalist Stefano Origone in Piazza Corvetto on the 23rd  May 2019. Origone had been savagely beaten in the middle of the clashes that day between anti-Fascists and the police during a rally of the far-right Casapound party. The journalist suffered moral as well as serious physical damage  destined to remain permanent despite numerous surgical operations. Ossigeno appeared in court next to Stefano Origone in order to appear as a civil party to stigmatize the umpteenth act of violence suffered by a journalist during his work. The four policemen were convicted on February 10th 2021 and the journalist obtained full justice, together with compensation for damages.
  • VANESSA VALVO: The freelance journalist Vanessa Valvo, sued for libel by a parish priest who was president of the Novara Social Cooperative, was acquitted on the 26th January 2022 by the Court of Biella following the withdrawal of the lawsuit in exchange for the  payment of a symbolic sum. The journalist Attilio Mattioni, at the time chief editor in charge of the weekly “L’Altomilanese” which in 2015 had published the two articles signed by Vanessa Valvo, at the centre of the lawsuit, was also acquitted. Ossigeno had decided to provide free legal aid to the journalist. The case concerned the publication of two articles published on the 16th  and the 30th  January 2015 deemed offensive to the reputation of the social cooperative “Multidea”, based in Novara. The offending articles told of the search that the police had carried out in the headquarters of the cooperative and of the possible connections with one of the most important Italian judicial investigations of recent years, Mafia Capitale, into collusion between public officials and criminals. Ossigeno, after having examined together with the legal team the documents of the trial, concluded that what was written by the journalist was based on real facts.
  • RITA PENNAROLA: A civil case pending before the Court of Rome. The first instance ended with Pennarola being sentenced to pay compensation on the 9th June 2016. An appeal was presented with a request for suspension. The summons to trial was proposed by the magistrate Francesco Verusio for an article published in the periodical La voce delle voci in April 2012. On the 9th September 2022, the Court of Appeal of Rome confirmed the sentence at first instance. The journalist has decided not to present an appeal to the Supreme Court.
  • LORENZO BAGNOLI: the journalist was acquitted on the 21st April 2020 by the General Prosecutor  of Rome, Ezio Damizia, who dismissed the lawsuit for libel  presented by Angelo Antonio Toriello against the then chief editor of the weekly L’Espresso, Tommaso Cerno, and investigative journalists Craig Shaw, Lorenzo Bagnoli and Lorenzo Bodrero, authors of an article in L’Espresso published on July 28th  2016. The article spoke of the activities of the plaintiff, a character at the time much talked about for his unusual  activities in diplomacy and business. The article entitled “International Intrigues, Imbroglio at the UN”, was a journalism investigation concerning events of undeniable public interest. The publication had been preceded by long and scrupulous research and cross-referencing of sources, both by statements and documentation, by the three journalists under investigation.
  • COSIMO CARIDI: On the 28th  March 2022, the freelance journalist Cosimo Caridi was acquitted by the General Prosecutor of Rome Dr. Arturi who issued a case dismissal. In 2019 the journalist had been reported for interrupting a  public service by the officers of the municipal police of Rome because he had filmed their intervention in public and had refused to delete the images he had recorded. The video-reporter had received expressions of solidarity from many of his colleagues and from the journalists’ trade organisations. On the 10th December 2019 Cosimo Caridi was in the centre of Rome when he realized that some municipal police officers were arresting a foreign street vendor who had fallen to the ground in an attempt to get away. The reporter turned on his video camera and began recording the scene from a distance. His presence with the camera in hand, however, annoyed the officers. Subsequently, the two policemen took him to the police station  in Rome’s city hall  where he was held for over two hours and the charge for the offence of interrupting public service  against him was formalized. He was assisted in court  by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro and the legal costs were borne by Il Fatto Quotidiano which had offered to support the case.
  • KELLY DUDA: the American journalist Kelly Duda was accused of the crime of contempt of a magistrate in a hearing because, whilst a witness in the context of the trial held in Naples on the scandal of infected blood against Duilio Poggiolini and some former managers of the Marcucci group (all acquitted), at the end of his testimony he approached the prosecuting magistrate and commented on his conduct in the hearing which the prosecuting magistrate himself considered offensive. On the 19th December 2022, the Criminal Court of Rome acquitted Kelly Duda reasoning that “there was no evidence of an offence”, thus accepting the arguments of Duda’s defence counsel Andrea Di Pietro.
  • MAURO D’AGOSTINO (2): Brioni S.p.A. and Roman Style, in the face of investigative journalism conducted by the editor D’Agostino on incidents related to corporate management, filed a lawsuit against D’Agostino for having published confidential documents demonstrating the existence of production bonuses for the Brioni management despite the economic and employment travails  of the company. In the criminal trial, held  in Pescara, the journalist was accused of having violated the secrecy of the accounts of the two companies and of having violated the privacy of Brioni managers. On the 30th November 2022, the Criminal Court of Pescara fully acquitted Mauro D’Agostino on both charges.
  • GRETA BECCAGLIA: at the Court of Florence, on the 20th December, the abbreviated judgment was pronounced  against the man who on the 27th  November 2021, in Empoli, sexually harassed the Florentine journalist Greta Beccaglia while she, with microphone in hand, commented on live television the outcome of a football match. Ossigeno per l’Informazione presented a request to form a civil action, alongside the journalist. A similar request was presented by the Order of Journalists and the journalists’ trade union. The journalist obtained full justice, together with compensation for damages, as the Court recognized the criminal responsibility of the man who had harassed her, sentencing him to one year and six months in prison.
  • FILIPPO MELE: Ossigeno per l’informazione, in collaboration with Media Defence, has taken up the defence for the appeal judgment of the freelance journalist Filippo Mele, sentenced in the first instance to pay compensation for damages together with other colleagues and newspapers, including Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica. The journalist was accused of defamation to the detriment of the parents of a girl who passed away in 1988 in tragic and not completely clear circumstances. He was defended in court by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro and his colleague Francesco Mele. On the 4th April 2023, the parties decided to settle the case on appeal with the waiver of the claims for damages in exchange for the publication of a clarification by Filippo Mele and the payment of a small sum of money.
  • RAFFAELLA FANELLI (2): the journalist had been sued by the well-known criminologist Dr. Bruzzone and by the lawyer Galoppa for some of her statements made to the host Marco Liorni on the 14th December 2016 during the programme “La Vita in Diretta” broadcast by the state broadcaster Rai 1. The trial expired at the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office on the 14th December 2022 without the Prosecuting Magistrate having brought criminal proceedings.
  • RAFFAELLA FANELLI (3): the journalist had been sued by the well-known serial killer Marco Bergamo (deceased on 17th October 2017) for an article that appeared in the weekly magazine OGGI on 26 May 2016 in which she reported the statements of Maurizia Mazzotta, the mother of the first victim, Marcella Casagrande, who was stabbed to death at just 15 years old. According to the serial killer, the incriminating interview would have compromised his release from prison, which was imminent at the time. The trial expired at the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office on May 26th, 2022 without the Prosecuting Magistrate having brought criminal proceedings.
  • ANGELO DEL LUPO+2: On February 25th,  2024, the Civil Court of Vasto rejected the request for damages made by Sapi, a private waste disposal company. Ossigeno took up the defence of the monthly Vasto Domani, “Newspaper of the Abruzzesi in the world”, and obtained a complete victory. The private company that manages the collection and disposal of waste for the Municipality of Vasto had sued the monthly “Vasto Domani” for libel asking for 250,000 euro in damages. The weekly Vasto Domani, in the insert attached to the January 2020 issue, had reconstructed in depth the story of the sale of the Municipality’s shares in the waste collection company, a matter of undoubted public interest that had sparked discussion among the citizens of Vasto, a town of 41,000 inhabitants in the province of Chieti. The engineer  Angelo Del Lupo, author of what is a real technical analysis, made with expertise in the matter, based on objective evidence and accounting data, had made a series of critical assessments of the inappropriateness of the ways in which the Municipal Administration had conducted the operation.
  • ALESSIO VISCARDI: on May 5th 2023, after 4 years of investigation, the Court of Rome dismissed a lawsuit for libel filed in 2019 by a member of the far-right Casa Pound against the journalist Alessio Viscardi. Ossigeno’s Legal Desk, judging the case to be of general interest, in collaboration with Media Defence, bore the journalist’s legal fees, entrusting the defence to the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro. On May 8th, 2019 in Rome, in the Casal Bruciato neighborhood, Alessio Viscardi had documented with an article and a video the protests of a group of people who demonstrated against the handover of a social housing dwelling to a non-Italian family. The video shows scenes of strong protest against the members of the recipient family and the police deployed to protect the new tenants. The protesters addressed insults and threats to both the tenants and the police.
  • FABRIZIO DELL’ORSO: the journalist, defended by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, was acquitted despite the opposition to the request for dismissal that the plaintiff had presented against the reasoning of the public prosecutor. The investigating judge of Rome, Andrea Fanelli, rejected the objection and, on July 7th, 2023, issued a dismissal decree , dropping the charges against Fabrizio Dell’Orso. Ossigeno per l’informazione accepted Dell’Orso’s request for legal defence to face this criminal trial for libel arising from a lawsuit from Andrea Ceccherini, founder of the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori. Ceccherini accused Fabrizio Dell’Orso of having damaged his reputation by publishing in English, on the blog “Italian4journalists”, a journalistic investigation that negatively assessed the poor results achieved by the Osservatorio with its initiative “Il Quotidiano in Classe” (“The daily newspaper in the classroom”), which had had the objective of bringing young people back to reading newspapers.
  • SARA MANISERA: on April 22nd  2024, the freelance journalist was acquitted by the preliminary investigations judge of Crotone from the charge of defamation following a lawsuit by the Mayor of the Municipality of Abbiategrasso. She  was accused of having linked the name of the Municipality to mafia episodes, in a speech she gave on June 8th  2022, in Cutro, in the province of Crotone, during a public meeting on the occasion of the National Youth Award ‘Diego Tajani’. The journalist had said she was shocked by the lawsuit. Mansera  made it clear publicly that with her words she did not intend to make any accusations against the administrators of Abbiategrasso and added that she used the word “Comune” to indicate only the territory of the municipality. To defend herself from the accusations, which she believes to be unfounded, she asked for the assistance of Ossigeno per l’informazione.
  • LEANDRO SALVIA: on July 16th  2024, the preliminary investigations judge of Palermo dismissed the lawsuit against the freelance journalist Leandro Salvia, 47 years old, correspondent of the Giornale di Sicilia from San Cipirello (Palermo). Salvia, availing himself of the assistance of the Legal Desk of Ossigeno, had filed for slander against a lawyer who in 2021 had sued him for libel accusing him of having written serious falsehoods about her and  had demanded 100 thousand euro in damages. However, during that trial, the judge had determined  that, in the disputed articles, the journalist had written the truth and had used language justified by the right to criticize.
  • ALESSIO VISCARDI (2): on the 9th April 2024, the preliminary investigations judgeof Rome acquitted the journalist Alessio Viscardi because of the lack of evidence. He had faced  trial for violation of privacy following the formal complaint of some police officers who had accused him of having published on Facebook a video showing them in action during a public order operation. The journalist was defended by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, coordinator of the Legal Help Desk of Ossigeno. The video had been released during a protest demonstration of the Ultima Generazione movement (a  group of climate change activists), which resulted in serious acts of vandalism. In the video, some officers could be seen, among other things, ordering journalists and videographers not to film them while a group of protesters destroyed the windows of an ENI Energy utility company store in Rome with pickaxes.
  • ZAVAGLI AND CRETÌ: on the 24th May 2024, the Civil Court of Arezzo rejected the claim for compensation against two newspapers defended by the Legal Help Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione; Estense.com and Sulpanaro.net, both sued by a former entrepreneur from Bibbiena for some news articles that at the time published the Ferrara Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation of him regarding an alleged fraud in the renovation works on the city’s football stadium.
  • ANDREA SEBASTIANELLI: on January 20th  2025, the case of journalist Andrea Sebastianelli, accused of defamation by a former councillor of the municipality of Rocca di Papa (Rome) for the publication of a news article in 2023, ended with an acquittal by the Court of Velletri, due to the dismissal of a lawsuit launched by the   municipal councillor.  Andrea Sebastianelli, director of the newspaper Il Segno, that covers stories of the Castelli Romani and Rocca di Papa area, had been convicted with a criminal conviction decree, that is, without having had the opportunity to defend  himself in a trial. With the assistance of the Legal Help Desk of Ossigeno, represented by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, Sebastianelli challenged the conviction and obtained the trial. The Help Desk, which operates in collaboration with Media Defence, covered the costs of the journalist’s legal defence.

OSSIGENO GRATUTIES  2024:

1) Pierelisa Rizzo+2

2) Matteo Alborghetti

3) Giampiero Carbone

4) Attilio Bolzoni

5) Giuseppe Tallino

6) Josè Trovato

OSSIGENO GRATUITIES 2023:

1) Giuseppe Spallino

2) Giorgio Santoriello (2)

3) Ferdinando Bocchetti

4) Francesco Pesante

5) Pierelisa Rizzo

6) Francesco Celardo

OSSIGENO GRATUITIES 2022: 

1) Stefania De Cristofaro

2) Silvio Leoni

3) Emiliano Rozzino

4) Matteo Antonio Rubino

5) Marilù Mastrogiovanni

6) Giusi Cavallo and Michele Finizio

OSSIGENO GRATUITIES 2021:

1) Fabio Di Chio

2) Dania Mondini e Claudio Loiodice

3) Angela Baglioni

4) Angelo Di Natale

5) Natale Salvo

6) Nazareno Di Noi

OSSIGENO GRATUITIES 2020:

1) Paolo Sarandrea

2) Adelina Mandara

3) Mariano Giustino

4) Maria D’Amico

5) Stefano Origone (2)

6) Rita Pennarola (2)

7) Marco Pastore

8) Giorgio Santoriello

OSSIGENO GRATUITIES 2019:

1) Roberto La Pira

2) Giuditta Mosca

3) Vincenzo Carriero

4) Andrea Cinquegrani

5) Andrea Palladino

6) Giovanni Coviello

7) Paolo Marchetti

8) Federica Angeli

From 2015 to 2024, a total of 93 journalists and bloggers were assisted by Ossigeno per l’informazione, of which:

– 53 defended in civil and criminal trials with 98% success;

– 40 supported with partial reimbursement of legal expenses (gratuity).

read the developments of individual cases