Let's talk about serious matters: A bill passed by the Council of Ministers hints at the obligation to register for anyone with editorial activities, perhaps even for those with a blog or a website. The government is reforming publishing. Bureaucracy on the web? Alarm bells ringing online. Thus, even "small" internet users would face increased costs and criminal sanctions. Undersecretary Levi: "This is not the spirit; the Authority will decide."
by ALDO FONTANAROSA
ROME - Council of Ministers on October 12: the government approves and sends to Parliament the text that aims to change the rules of the game for the publishing world, for newspapers and also for the Internet. It is a complex bill, 20 pages, 35 articles, which is now beginning to sow panic online. Those with a small site, even those who have a personal blog, see looming registration obligations, bureaucracy, unpredictable expenses. Above all, they fear stronger criminal sanctions in case of defamation.
Article 6 of the bill states that anyone who engages in "editorial activity" must register with the ROC, a special register maintained by the Authority for Communications. The Authority doesn’t charge for the registration, but the process is cumbersome, and some of the required certificates involve payment of a stamp duty. Editorial activity - the bill continues - means creating and distributing an "editorial product" even without profit. And an editorial product is everything: it includes information but is also something that "educates" or "entertains" the audience (Article 2). The means of disseminating this product are on the same level, including the Web.
Written this way, the new rules appear to impact the entire Internet landscape, including the smallest sites and especially blogs. Is this really the case? Ricardo Franco Levi, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council and architect of the reform, downplays the situation: "The spirit of our project is certainly not this. We have no interest in targeting amateur sites or personal blogs; it wouldn't be feasible."
A concrete example, however: will Beppe Grillo's blog be affected by the new rules? Will Grillo also need to be included in the ROC register? "It’s not up to the government to determine that - Levi continues - The Authority for Communications will indicate, through its regulations, which entities and businesses are genuinely required to register. And the regulation will come only after the law has been discussed and approved by Parliament."
In short: if there is to be a tightening of rules, it will only materialize many months later, after the parliamentary process and the approval of the Authority's regulation. But in the meantime, it’s worth being concerned. Because registration with the ROC - at least in its current wording - not only implies paperwork and bureaucracy. It particularly risks increasing criminal responsibilities for those with a website.
Sabrina Peron, a lawyer and author of the book "La diffamazione tramite mass-media" (Cedam Editore), explains: "The old law on publishing provisions, that of 2001, did not extend Article 13 of the Press Law to Internet sites. In simple terms, defamation committed through a site was considered straightforward. Thus, the criminal norms punished it less severely. This new bill, however, classifies online defamation as aggravated. It fully becomes a form of defamation, so to speak, through the press."
Thus, the Internet would also enter fully into the orbit of criminal norms concerning the press. Consequently, every website, if required to register with the ROC, would also need to have a publishing company and a journalist in the role of responsible director. Both the publisher and the site’s director would be accountable for the offense of failing to control defamatory content. This, under Articles 57 and 57 bis of the Penal Code.
