Conference: JMMUN

Committee: UNHRC
Country: Italy
Topic: Addressing Freedom of Speech on the Internet
Delegate: Tanish Shukla
School: UIA International School of Tokyo

Addressing Freedom of Speech in the Republic of Italy

The Italian Republic, a nation boasting large economic growth and technological
advancements, still grapples with a profound lack of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is
the ability to express opinions and ideas without fear of censorship, restraint, or legal penalty.
The lack of freedom of speech is present worldwide , and has extreme effects on Italy and the
rest of the world. Every day, 5.3 billion people use the Internet. This is approximately 66%,
or two-thirds, of the world population. Constantly, a majority of the population of the
members of the internet face the issue of a lack of freedom of speech, or government
censorship. This makes it a serious issue in Italy and throughout the world as many
governments may abuse their power and/or silence peaceful dissent.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that “Addressing hate
speech does not mean limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech. It means keeping hate
speech from escalating into something more dangerous, particularly incitement to
discrimination, hostility and violence, which is prohibited under international law”, in May of
2019. Italy strongly agrees with this statement, and hate speech and libel can lead to up to 18
months in prison according to the constitution. On April 21, 2023, the Italian daily newspaper
La Repubblica was forced to pay $57,000 in fines for libel about internal minister Matteo
Salvini as compensation. There are many non-profit organisations that exist and/or are
supported in Italy. The most prominent examples of these are organisations and websites are
the Freedom House, freedominfo.org, and the Freedom of Information Advocates Network.

Italy has been severely affected by hate crimes and misinformation on the internet, the
most frequent of which being Islamophobia and Antiziganism. Because of this, Italy draws a
fine line between freedom of speech on the internet and hateful speech and libel. As
mentioned before, hate crimes and disinformation have severe consequences, and the extreme
cases such as Holocaust denial and Antisemitism, can get up to 6 years in prison. The
delegation of Italy would like the United Nations to have policies that support international
cooperation across borders, engagement with tech companies, support for national legislation,
and set a global standard for the freedom of expression.

The delegation of Italy, along with other democratic nations, wishes to implement
solutions to libel, disinformation, and hate crimes. The delegation of Italy wishes to
amend/update the legislation or constitution so that crimes and the freedom of speech are
properly addressed, and so that there are clear definitions of hate crimes and violations of the
freedom of speech rights. The delegation of Italy also advocates for laws that protect
journalistic freedom that supports media outlets that produce fact-based and high-quality
information. As mentioned above, Italy wishes to work with tech giants such as Google and
Facebook so that systems monitoring hate crimes and freedom of speech violations. The
delegation of Italy wishes to work with other countries to come to a worthwhile and
constructive solution to aiding freedom of speech, preventing hate crimes, and making the
Internet a safer environment for generations to come.
Works Cited

Benedek, Wolfgang, and Matthias C. Kettemann. Freedom of Expression and the

Internet: By Wolfgang Benedek and Matthias C. Kettemann. Council of Europe, 2013.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. “Italy - United States
Department of State.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, 7 Dec. 2023,
www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/italy/.

Freedom House. “Italy: Freedom on the Net 2022 Country Report.” Freedom House,
2023, freedomhouse.org/country/italy/freedom-net/2022.