Overview

• On July 10, 36 activists from Potere al Popolo and Cambiare Rotta held a one-hour sit-in outside the Milan offices of Il Giornale and Libero to protest alleged defamation campaigns and portray journalists as police agents.
• Protesters displayed photos of directors and reporters, including Alessandro Sallusti and Mario Sechi, with slogans accusing them of being “servants of lies” and having “bloodstained hands,” while police monitored the gathering.
• Senior figures in Fratelli d’Italia led the backlash, with Giovanni Donzelli decrying the event as an attack on press freedom and democracy.
• Italia Viva’s Matteo Renzi and editor Maurizio Molinari also voiced solidarity with the targeted newspapers, marking a rare cross-party consensus in defense of journalism.
• The episode has intensified debate over the limits of political dissent in Italy’s polarized environment and prompted renewed calls to bolster safeguards for free expression.