VIENNA
Reuters
The Vatican should withdraw criminal charges against two journalists who wrote books accusing it of corruption, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday, invoking press freedom.
The Vatican on Saturday ordered five people, including two Italian journalists, to stand trial for leaking and publishing secret documents, in the latest development in a scandal which is rocking the papacy.
Causing embarrassment and anger in the Vatican, the two journalists, Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, used the leaks by Vatican officials in their books, which the Holy See described as giving a “partial and tendentious” version of events.
“Journalists must be free to report on issues of public interests and to protect their confidential sources,” the OSCE’s representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic, said.
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