“From the New York Penthouse”, “Bullshit”. Clash between Rula Jebreal and Italo Bocchino

In the studio of Agreements & Disagreements the clash ignites when one of the events that have caused the most discussion in the last few hours is addressed, namely the canceled monologue of Antonio Scurati; a tempting opportunity for someone to immediately shout at the censors, like Rula Jebrealwho remembers what happened to her, coming to argue with Italo Bocchino.

Live question and answer

Taking advantage of the topic debated during the broadcast, the Palestinian journalist with Israeli and Italian citizenship returned to the complaint of Giorgia Meloni towards him after a post on Twitter in which he spoke about the father of the Prime Minister and leader of the Brothers of Italy. In 2022, in fact, Jebreal wrote a tweet, citing a bad news story related to the father of the current prime minister – a topic, among other things, very delicate and painful for the Meloni family – and she was sued.

“The Prime Minister has never sued anyone“, explains Italo Bocchino, “Giorgia Meloni had done one lawsuit previously but...” “It’s not true, he sued me!“, Rula Jebreal immediately urges. “I mean, he sued me over a tweet!” “Not as Prime Minister“, specifies Bocchino immediately. That’s enough, however, to trigger the clash.

Luca Sommi, host of Agreements & Disagreementstries to restore calm, confirming Bocchino’s words: the complaint Jebreal is talking about dates back to when Giorgia Meloni was leader of the Brothers of Italy and not yet prime minister. “Giorgia Meloni as prime minister has never sued anyone”Italo Bocchino then reiterates, “when she was a parliamentarian, when she was defamed, yes he defended. There is a law in this country that you can be an artist, a thinker, a newspaper editor, but you can’t defame people… there’s a limit. In law it is called ‘continence’“. And it is when you exceed that limit, Bocchino specifies, you file a defamation complaint and you go before a judge who is a third party and who decides.

The Canfora case and freedom of the press

Naturally the conversation turned on Luciano Canfora. On 11 April 2022 the professor, who was speaking at a scientific high school in Bari, went so far as to define Giorgia Meloni “a neo-Nazi in the soul”. Hence the complaint from the current Prime Minister. “Why shouldn’t he have sued him?“, says Bocchino. “He should have sued him, and the sentence must come. Because when it comes to saying that there is an authoritarian drift in this country, coming from someone from the attic in New York…“

“I’m on CBS, I’m not in the penthouse in New York, so let’s not say bullshit“, Rula Jebreal blurts out, visibly annoyed. “And among other things, I live in a country where a president of the United States like Donald Trump is called ‘criminal, rapist, insurrectionist’ and doesn’t dare… because here freedom of the press is guaranteed in the Constitution!“.

“To say that there is an authoritarian drift in Italy is utter nonsense“, concludes Bocchino, remaining calm.

“As regards freedom of the press, in Italy it is the widest freedom of the press of Western countries“.