Ossigeno Legal Aid to blogger sued by the local police chief

At trial even if she immediately clarified that she was not referring to the plaintiff and has apologized

OSSIGENO 30^th November 2023. The Ossigeno Legal Desk has decided to assist the blogger Linda Maggiori, sued by the head  of the local police of the Municipality of Faenza (Ravenna) for a post which in his opinion implied that he was  personally involved in the serious failures of the municipal administration as reported by the blogger.

Linda Maggiori had promptly declared that she absolutely did not intend to make such a personal accusation and personally apologized to the police chief, informing the readers of her blog about it. But the plaintiff decided to continue the legal action. The defence of the blogger in court was entrusted to the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, coordinator of the Ossigeno Legal Aid Desk.

WHO IS SHE? – Linda Maggiori lives in Faenza. She is known for her social commitment and sustainable lifestyle. She is an environmental activist, as well as being the curator of the Faenza Eco-Logica blog, which has published numerous investigations into the problems of environmental protection in the Ravenna area. She collaborates with the daily newspaper Il Manifesto, various blogs and other publications.

THE LEGAL OFFICE of Ossigeno per l’Informazione, in collaboration with Media Defence, has decided to provide free legal aid to the blogger in consideration of the general interest of the matter. For Ossigeno, the right to sue for defamation in order to protect one’s reputation is inviolable. But it should always be subordinated, as a priority, to the possibility of obtaining a resolution with fair play and public apologies. This latter approach avoids overwhelming the judicial system and  the imposition  of a load of expenses on those who provide information in good faith on facts of general public interest but may perpetrate unwanted errors and inaccuracies.

Priority should be given to the opportunity to act in this way to avoid burdens that may be too onerous for the weakest links  in the information chain, such as bloggers and freelancers. To this end, Ossigeno has long promoted the practice of fair play and apologies, public or private, to resolve matters like this in the shortest time, without costs and with reciprocal satisfaction. Adopting this practice would avoid a large part of the ten thousand lawsuits filed every year in Italy, facilitating justice and eliminating the punitive effects on media workers who act in good faith.

THE POST – In the post that triggered  the lawsuit, the blogger raised doubts about the checks carried out by the municipal administration and the local police regarding the granting of authorizations and permits to run a transport company to Rosario Cocuzza, born in 1970, a haulage entrepreneur of Castel di Judica (Catania), who was involved in the IBLIS trial (Mafia and public tenders  in the Catania area) and sentenced in 2014 to 4 years in prison, with a sentence subsequently reduced.

On the 2nd February 2023, in the post published on the Facebook page connected to the Faenza Eco-Logica blog, Linda Maggiori highlighted  that the authorised activities had been a serious failure by the local police force and the land use management activity,  and the fact that the activities of this entrepreneur had been authorized, despite some of his company’s trucks having  been abandoned for some time.

The blogger had written: “Is it possible that no policeman or administrator thought of checking those trucks abandoned for years, even for obvious possible environmental pollution?”