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The Court of Appeal of Catania (Sicily) has issued an Interesting decision against the blog “Accadeinsicilia.it” run by a famous Italian historian Carlo Ruta providing (not on a regular basis) information on Sicily. The Court of Catania challenged to Mr. Ruta that the blog was not enrolled in the Court registry as requested by Italian press law in relation to all press material and issued a fine of € 150 against Mr. Ruta.
What is more interesting of this decision is the qualification by the court of the blog like any other press material that is consequently subject to the registration obligation.
The decision has been highly criticised and, according to some commentators, such qualification might have a negative impact on the growth of the Internet as the requirement of the pre-registration in the Court registry might be in contrast with the principles governing the Internet from its birth. Also, such qualification might risk to trigger the extention of the applicability to blogs of rules governing the liability of editors. In fact, Italian press law prescribes that directors of editorial products (e.g. a journal, magazines, newspapers) are objectively liable (i.e. it is not necessary to prove their negligence or wilful misconduct) for any content published on them even if they had no knowledge of the illegal material.
It will be interesting to see the position that will be taken by the Italian Court of Cassation (the Italian Supreme Court) that recently had adopted a completely different approach on a similar matter. Hopefully the Court of Cassation will provide clearer guidelines on the applicability of Italian press law.
Do you want to discuss the above? Do you want to review the obligations applicable to your website? Feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.
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