Freedom of association
In May, police raided the homes of five Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) activists, including a minor, in Padua in connection with a failed attempt to display a banner during an exhibition on 12th April. To prevent the action, officers had confiscated their banner, stickers, and chalk. Following this, on 3rd May, police searched the homes of the five activists—four female and one male—on orders from the prosecutor’s office, making forensic copies of their phones and computers.
In February 2024, there was an attack on the headquarters of the Gay Centre in Rome, a space opened by LGBTQI+ organisations in the Testaccio neighbourhood of Rome, with homophobic inscriptions and damage to the entrance. A group of children were caught on video surveillance shouting and spray-painting homophobic phrases in front of the entrance to the Centre. The vandals also damaged the rainbow-coloured wall at the entrance to the centre with baseball bats.
On 24th June 2024, an office of the centre-left Democratic Party in Milan was defaced with phrases praising fascism and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
On 7th October 2024 in Taranto, an office of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Italy’s largest trade union confederation was defaced with graffiti. Due to the content, the graffiti is presumed to have been left by opponents of COVID-19 vaccination, which Italian media sources refer to as the “No Vax” movement. As previously reported by the CIVICUS Monitor, two leaders of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova movement were convicted in December 2023 due to their role in violent protests against COVID-19 measures, during which CGIL’s national headquarters were attacked and looted.
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Repression against pro-Palestine protesters
In February 2024, there were reports of police violence and excessive use of force against protesting students during a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Police blocked student marches in the Tuscan cities of Florence and Pisa, and images showed officers vigorously wielding batons against young protesters in Pisa. The footage sparked outrage on social media and among politicians, as the videos appeared to show peaceful school-age protesters (some of whom were reportedly middle school students, up to 14 years of age) retreating under the barrage of helmeted and fully armoured officers. “Is this how you beat your own children?” a young woman can be heard shouting in one of the clips. Another video from Florence shows a girl bleeding from a head wound after police used batons against protesters to prevent them from reaching the US consulate.
On 24th February 2024, President Sergio Mattarella criticised Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi over the police’s excessive use of force against student protesters in Pisa and Florence. At a meeting with the trade unions, the minister assured that a full judicial enquiry would be carried out to examine the responsibility of those in the chain of command who had given the order for the police to attack peaceful demonstrators.
Repression against environmental activists
On 9th July, during a demonstration in Bologna, Extinction Rebellion activists chained themselves to the entrance of Palazzo d’Accursio, with others attempting to display a banner on the Clock Tower. One activist, who did not chain herself but was apprehended with others, later reported alleged police abuse. After being detained, photographed, and fingerprinted, she claimed she was forced to undress and bend over in an unsanitary bathroom at Bologna’s police headquarters.
In June 2024, Erica Barberi, an Ultima Generazione activist who participated in a non-violent protest in Palermo—plunging into a fountain while displaying a banner— in April 2023 was issued a 'foglio di via' (residence ban, or mandatory expulsion order), barring her from staying in the municipality of Palermo, where she currently attends university. After her case came to the attention of the media, the expulsion order against Barberi was revoked on 30th April 2024, however, such orders remained in force against other protest participants.
In August, Ultima Generazione activist Giacomo Baggio received a special surveillance order mandating regular police sign-ins, a curfew from 8 pm to 7 am, and a prohibition on participating in public demonstrations. This restrictive measure, typically reserved for individuals deemed socially dangerous (often those affiliated with organised crime), was justified by Baggio's involvement in non-violent protests, including with a demonstration during an international tennis tournament in Rome.
On 23rd May, a protest action by Ultima Generazione, in which activists smeared the entrance to the Ministry of Labour with charcoal, led to the arrest of those involved. Even before the action began, the police arrested two activists, a videographer and two journalists and took them to the Castro Pretorio police station, where they were subjected to identity checks. After being identified, the three journalists were released, although they reported that they had been detained for over three hours without access to their phones.
Around ten activists were intercepted before the demonstration by the police, who were present with an armoured vehicle. During the demonstration, one protester was immediately handcuffed after throwing charcoal at the wall of the ministry, and three other activists were subsequently also handcuffed.
Right to protest threatened under new decree
On 18th September, a new security decree, DDL 1660, was approved by one chamber of parliament. Introducing roughly thirty amendments to the criminal code, it outlines twenty new offences, extends existing penalties, and intensifies punishments in specific cases. For example, blocking roads would carry penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment, and peaceful protests face criminalisation, particularly for opposition to large public infrastructure projects. If the law is approved, protests in repatriation centres and prisons, even in cases of passive resistance, will be punishable by severe prison sentences.
The decree has raised significant concern, not only among civil society organisations but also at institutional levels. The OSCE's ODIHR has remarked that the draft law has “several shortcomings that are likely to impede the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the prohibition of ill-treatment and the rights to liberty and security of persons, freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and of movement, as well as the rights to a fair trial and to respect for private and family life, among others.”
Freedom of expression
Developments related to the “Gag Law”
In February 2024, the Italian Senate considered an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure that would prohibit media from publishing pre-trial detention orders until after the preliminary hearing. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the Senate to reject this “gag law,” arguing it would severely limit press freedom in reporting on judicial cases. If passed, the law would prevent journalists from quoting any part of detention orders, including details on detention grounds, seizures, and hearings, leaving them to provide only broad interpretations of the order. This restriction raises concerns about potential defamation risks for journalists who respect the presumption of innocence.
The law was passed by the lower house of the Italian parliament on 19th December, as previously reported by the CIVICUS Monitor. On 15th October, two Senate commissions reviewed the draft law, with one suggesting expanded scope and harsher sanctions.
Journalists intimidated, attacked
In June 2024 in Turin, journalist Andrea Joly from La Stampa was assaulted while covering a rally organised by the neo-fascist organisation CasaPound. Joly was beaten, kicked, choked and thrown to the ground for trying to film the rally, which was taking place outdoors and in public.
In June 2024, the Prime Minister’s party, Fratelli d’Italia, initiated a defamation lawsuit seeking EUR 50,000 from the investigative TV programme Report, alleging harm to its image following an episode on possible ties between the party and criminal organisations. The request for mediation, which precedes the civil action, states that the journalist's references to the numerous members of the party who have been arrested for mafia offences “has seriously damaged the image of the Fratelli d'Italia political party”.
On 31st July 2024, police, with a prosecutor present, searched journalist Simone Innocenti’s home and the newsroom of Corriere Fiorentino, seizing devices. Innocenti is under investigation by the Florence Public Prosecutor's Office for allegedly “revealing and using official secrets” in an article on the potential causes behind the suicide of a student at the Florence school for commissioners and brigadiers. The National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI) and Associazione Stampa Toscana (AST) condemned the search as a violation of press freedom. Vice-President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno, raised the matter with the European Commission.
On 4th October, the Court of Appeals upheld the legality of the search and device seizure.
Teacher censured for criticising Education Minister
In August 2024, writer and activist Christian Raimo was targeted by a hate campaign initiated by government officials after criticising the Minister of Education. Raimo, who teaches History and Philosophy at a high school in Rome, faced disciplinary measures at his job, including reprimands in August and again in September for further criticism at an opposition event.