Italian journalist calls Giorgia Meloni 'little woman', ordered to pay €5,000 in damages

An Italian journalist has landed into trouble for “body shaming” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. A court in the country has ordered Giulia Cortese, a Milan-based journalist to pay €5,000 (over Rs 4 lakh) in damages to Meloni after she mocked the leader’s height on social media.

Cortese and Meloni engaged in a word of war on social media after the former posted a morphed picture of the Italian prime minister that showed Meloni with the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on X. Meloni, reacting to the image, said that the “falsified photo” was of “unique gravity”. Following this Meloni asked her lawyer to sue the journalist.

In two other tweets, Cortese said, “The media pillory you created on your Facebook page qualifies you for what you are: a little woman,” and “You don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2 metres (4 ft) tall. I can’t even see you.”

While the Milan-based journalist was acquitted in the case of the morphed picture of Meloni, she was convicted of defaming the Italian prime minister, which the judge called a case of “body shaming.”

Talking to The Guardian about her conviction over a “joke phrase”, Cortese said, “There’s [a] climate of persecution. I don’t feel I have the freedom anymore to write about this government because once you are identified as an inconvenient journalist for this government, they don’t let anything pass.”

Meanwhile, Meloni’s lawyer has said that she will donate the €5,000 to a charity after the money is paid to her.

Meloni has a history of pursuing legal action against journalists or critics who publicly criticize her. Since assuming office, her administration has faced allegations of strategically employing defamation lawsuits to stifle journalists and public intellectuals.