Restaurateur exposed over fake review 'hounded to death'

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 15 - A restaurateur who was exposed for making a false claim she had barred a customer who had posted a review, allegedly made up by her to get publicity for her eatery, complaining he had been seated near a gay couple and a disabled boy, was hounded to death by left-leaning journalists as if her case had been Watergate or "the scandal of the century", the rightwing government League and Brothers of Italy (FdI) parties said Monday.
    The woman, Giovanna Pedretti, is believed to have committed suicide in a northern Italian river amid a social media backlash after she was exposed by state broadcaster Rai's left-leaning Rai3 news channel Tg3, liberal celebrity chef and influencer Lorenzo Biagiarelli, and the latter's partner and fellow liberal influencer Selvaggia Lucarelli.
    Senior League lawmaker Mara Bizzotto said "what happened at Lodi is shocking and makes you think: Tg3 and the Lucarellis treated an alleged fake review as if it were the Watergate scandal.
    "I only hope that those who flung so much mud now have the decency to remain silent. And what does Rai have to say about it?" League MEP Isabella Tovaglieri said "common sense went missing in the case of the Lodi restaurateur, and those who unleashed the media lynching should have a good hard think about what they did." Giorgio Maria Bergesio, League pointman on the parliamentary Rai oversight body, said the League would file a formal question on Rai's coverage saying that "the story of an alleged fake post was treated by Tg3 as if it were the scandal of the century.
    "A news desk is free to exercise freedom of the press and cover all stories but we urgently need a debate on proportionality.
    "We don't think that the factor of social interest was so high as to justify the media hounding of the protagonists.
    "We voice the hope that Rai will take a stance, also in light of the contracts and compensation on which we intend to shed light shortly".
    The Rai commission pointman for Premier Giorgia Meloni's FdI, Francesco Filini, agreed that "a public service broadcaster must not indulge in media lynching".
    He said that Pedretti, the restaurateur, had been "subjected to a full-blown summary trial by the media" and had been "placed in the stocks of media opinion, leading to her likely suicide".
    Filini said "certain Rai programmes have habituated us to such approaches, but in this case it had extremely serious conseqences".
    The other government party, centre right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI), said through MP Roberto Pella that "the case highlights the need for a more conscientious use of social media, to rein in the haters.".
    Lucarelli, whose status as influencer has been boosted by her media prominence as the most outspoken judge on Italy's version of Dancing With The Stars, responded by saying that it appeared to her critics that "re-establishing the truth is a fault, something to be held responsible for".
    She said that "writing false things is dangerous and can even lead to tragedies", and cited another case last year in which an alleged "commuting school janitor" was "hit by a shitstorm of abuse after it emerged that her story was false".
    She said "no one ever poses the problem that writing things that aren't true can have serious consequences.
    "In practice, we have come to the point that publishing a true story is no longer held to be a journalist's responsibilty. It's worse than Black Mirror".
    Amid the row, Lucarelli's partner Biagiarelli took the day off from his job on a Rai cooking show on Monday.
    The Lodi restaurant owner did not have any economic problems, friends and family said Monday.
    Traces of blood were found in her car and police think she may have slit her wrists before jumping into the Lambro River and drowning. (ANSA).