While the United States is mired in its own scandal about surveillance of its citizens, and many countries in Europe are trying to quell their respective citizens' revolt on the same issue, Italy has decided to forgo freedom of speech altogether.
The Italian Parliament has proposed a law that would mandate a one to three year jail sentence for anyone who protests or criticizes any politician publicly or privately, as a single person or in group demonstrations.
The proposal was submitted by the PDL, the center party, formerly identified with the Christian party and now under the 'care' of deposed prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
In addition, the proposal would see jail time for anyone who disturbs a political demonstration. However, this measure is soley for the protection of politicians during an election rally or speech, because if the official who makes the complaint is a public official, the penalty is greater, two to five years in jail.
This is coming on the heels of a manifestation in which the former premier, Berlusconi was hackled in public, and members of his party have said that a pro PDL demonstrator was kicked in the backside. A propaganda meet in favor of Berlusconi had been confronted with a demonstration from a group opposing the aging premier and his party.
To make matters worse, a leader of the PDL party has said that "If we do not put a stop to this right away, the virus of the automatic protest will become legit and endemic, so that legitimate politicians will have to scrap their public encounters due to the fact that they are not liked by someone." The oxymoron here is that they cited the freedom of their party's speech, or freedom to congregate and campaign to ensure that the law is 'fair'.
Source : Today.it/ 7.12.13
No comments:
Post a Comment