Journalist Fined €5000 For Mocking Italian PM’s Height

The BBC reports:

An Italian journalist has been ordered to pay Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of €5,000 (£4,210) over social media posts making fun of her height. A judge ruled that two tweets by Giulia Cortese, who was also handed a suspended fine of €1,200, were defamatory and amounted to “body shaming”.

It followed an exchange in which Ms Cortese described Ms Meloni as a “little woman” and told her: “I can’t even see you.” Reacting to the verdict, Ms Cortese said the Italian government had a “serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent”.

The pair first clashed in 2021, when Ms Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party was still in opposition, after Ms Cortese posted a mocked-up image of Ms Meloni.

Read the full article. Meloni is 5’3″. At today’s exchange rate, the fine is about $5440 USD. You know that the cult would love to be able to fine people for mocking Hair Furor.

Italian judge orders a journalist to pay 5,000 euros in damages for making fun of Meloni’s height https://t.co/KwYrBlEkiY

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 19, 2024