Calling the mayor ‘Cetto La Quale’ “is the right to criticizein the form of satire” so that it does not represent defamation. This was underlined by the judges of Criminal Section V of the Supreme Court in the sentence they used. an Abruzzo citizen was acquitted of defamation charges which has defined the mayor with the name of a character created by Antonio Albanese.
Why absolution
For the supreme judge “reputation is not identified with the consideration that each person has for himself or with simple self-love, but with a sense of personal dignity – we read in the sentence – in accordance with the opinion of the social group to which he refers, in accordance with a particular historical context”. A political figure “certainly has the right to have his reputation protected, even outside the scope of his private life, but the necessity – wrote the judges – of this protection must be balanced with interest in free discussion of an issue policies and exceptions to freedom of expression require strict interpretation.”
In this case the name addressed to the mayor “does not seem to be an unmotivated derogatory attack, aimed at degrading his human and professional figure in public” but is reminiscent of a character “notably absent, therefore, in the form of a joking and ironic satire, although characterized by a caustic tone that combines the exercise of political criticism”.
