Italian journalists union Fnsi said Thursday that it is set to stage a series of protests against a bill that would ban the publication of the contents of preventative-detention warrants, saying it was a "gag" that violates the right to report the news.
Fnsi said it would stage an extraordinary meeting of its executive on Thursday to organize the "mobilization" of Italian journalists and civil society against the bill.
"We are already asking the President Sergio Mattarella not to sign a law that could be the source of enormous distortions of rights," said Fnsi Secretary General Alessandra Costante.
"This is a freedom-killing measure, not only with respect to article 21 of the Constitution, but also with respect to individual freedoms.
"It is very dangerous not to know whether a person has been arrested or not.
"And it is not only dangerous for the freedom of the press, it is also dangerous for the recipient of the preventative-detention order.
"The memory of dictatorships, of the disappeared, of the people who vanish at the gates of Europe without anyone knowing anything about it, Alexei Navalny, for example, must raise our attention, including the attention of newspaper editors, who must join their journalist colleagues in this fight, and of the institutions".
Italy's Order of Journalists, the sector's professional association, also came out against the ban.
"The ban on publishing even just 'excerpts' of pre-trial detention orders has nothing to do with the principle of the presumption of innocence, but constitutes a heavy limitation of the right to report news," it said.
"Citizens are prevented from knowing the reasons behind the arrests and thus from knowing the reasons that led magistrates and police to take measures that limit individual freedom.
Citizens must know why such significant measures are taken in order to be able to exercise control over the work of the judiciary," it added.
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