Two Italian Journos Jailed & Fined for Criminal Libel

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)A reporter and an editor for Alto Adige, an Italian newspaper published in Bolzano in south Tyrol, were slapped with a four-month jail sentence and fined 15,000 euros ($18, 441) for criminal libel based on a 2008 article that defamed a Bolzano provincial counselor, The Guardian reports.

Orfeo Donatini, who wrote the article, and his editor, Tiziano Marson, were convicted of criminal libel for alleging that Sven Knoll attended a neo-Nazi summit four years ago. Alto Adige based its article on a police report that also was the subject of an article in the nationwide daily L'Espresso, according to the Guardian article.

After an initial acquittal, the matter was reviewed and the defendants were found guilty by a Bolzano tribunal. A London-based human rights group, eager to challenge Italy's criminal libel penal code provisions, has taken up the cudgel on the journalists' behalf