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An Italian journalist has been ordered to pay Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of \u20ac5,000 (\u00a34,210) over social media posts making fun of her height. <\/p>\n
A judge ruled that two tweets by Giulia Cortese, who was also handed a suspended fine of \u20ac1,200, were defamatory and amounted to “body shaming”. <\/p>\n
It followed an exchange in which Ms Cortese described Ms Meloni as a “little woman” and told her: “I can\u2019t even see you.”<\/p>\n
Reacting to the verdict, Ms Cortese said the Italian government had a “serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The pair first clashed in October 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 on X, formerly Twitter. <\/p>\n
Ms Meloni was seen in the image standing in front of a bookshelf on to which a framed photo of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini had been artificially added. <\/p>\n
In a post on Facebook<\/a>, Ms Meloni said the image was of “unique gravity” and that she would be taking legal action. <\/p>\n Later the same day, Mr Cortese said she had deleted the image after realising it was fake, but accused<\/a> Ms Meloni of creating a “media pillory” against her and said the Facebook post showed that she was a “little woman”. <\/p>\n