UNITED STATES
Poynter
by Kristen Hare
Published Nov. 18, 2015
Reporters Without Borders | The New York Times | Associated Press
Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi are being investigated by the Vatican for work that uncovered mismanagement, Reporters Without Borders reported Wednesday. The press freedom organization expressed support for Nuzzi, “who has cited his free speech rights as grounds for refusing to be interrogated by the Vatican judicial system as part of an investigation into the leaking of confidential documents.”
“By writing ‘Avarizia’ and ‘Via Crucis,’ Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi just exercised their right to provide information in the public interest and should not be treated as criminals in a country that supposedly respects media freedom,” said Alexandra Geneste, the head of the Reporters Without Borders EU-Balkans bureau in Brussels.
The two journalists are being investigated under a Vatican law adopted in July 2013, after the first “VatiLeaks.” It says: “Whoever illicitly obtains or reveals information or documents whose publication is forbidden is punishable by a sentence of six months to two years in prison or a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 euros.”
Unlike Nuzzi, Fittipaldi submitted to questioning but refused to talk, The Associated Press reported Wednesday, “citing the protections journalists enjoy in Italy to shield their sources — protections which don’t exist in the Vatican legal code.”
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