OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media asks Italian prime minister to drop libel lawsuits against two Italian dailies

VIENNA, 20 September 2009 - Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, urged Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today to drop two civil libel lawsuits against daily newspapers La Repubblica and L'Unità.

In a letter to the prime minister, Haraszti expressed concern about the total of three million euros that the Prime Minister is asking in moral damages from the two dailies over articles published in July and August, some of which posed questions about his conduct as a public official and suggested his abuse of media freedom in Italy.

"The persistent posing of questions, even of a partisan nature, is an important tool of the media's corrective function," Haraszti wrote to Berlusconi.

Haraszti stressed that on numerous occasions the European Court of Human Rights held that public officials should tolerate a higher level of criticism than ordinary citizens, precisely because of the public function they occupy, and called upon Berlusconi to drop the lawsuits to allow the media to fulfil their watchdog function, which is vital for a democratic society.

"The right of the public to know inevitably includes the media's right to ask," Haraszti said.