Diritto & Internet

Italian Supreme Court affirms the right to information contextualization and to the current truth

The decision of the Italian Supreme Court no. 5525 of the 5th of April, 2012 is a real leading case which affirms the right to contextualization of the information and the right to the truth at the present time.

It is not a decision on the right to oblivion, as superficially commented. On the contrary, it is a decision which states the right to the updating of the news.

The truth is truth only if it is present truth. If the truth is dated 20 years ago, it is a partial truth, and therefore is not truth.

The facts: a politician is charged with corruption in 1993. The news is properly reported in the newspapers of the time. Then the politician is acquitted. After many years typing the name of the politician in search engines the results show the news of the imputation, but not that of the acquittal.

Of course, the first news is true. But today it represents a partial truth, a false representation of reality, profoundly affecting the right to personal identity.

The news, therefore, has to be contextualized.

The theme is amply illustrated in THIS article, which is quoted in the decision.

Giusella Finocchiaro

Add comment

Scientific Director
Prof. Avv. Giusella Finocchiaro
Editorial Curator
Dott. Giulia Giapponesi

Lo Studio Legale Finocchiaro prosegue la sua attività con DigitalMediaLaws, la nuova società tra Avvocati fondata dalla Prof.ssa Avv. Giusella Finocchiaro e dal Prof. Avv. Oreste Pollicino.

Visita il sito di DigitalMediaLaws