Cassation TV and Minors
Self-Regulation Code for TV and Minors: Limits to Freedom of Information (Cassation, Civil Sections, Ruling No. 6759, April 6, 2004) The broadcast of "informative" radio and television programs does not enjoy any particular or differentiated guarantees compared to other programs of a different nature. The legislator has correctly "balanced" the two constitutional interests at stake, granting precedence to the interest aimed at protecting minors—and therefore limiting the exercise of freedom of radio and television information, according to criteria of proportionality and non-excessiveness—solely to cases of emotional danger of harm to the psychological or moral development of minors. This was established by the United Sections of the Court of Cassation, with Ruling No. 6759 of 6 April 2004, rejecting the appeal against the first-instance judge's decision upholding the ruling of the Italian Broadcasting and Publishing Authority, which had imposed a fine on RAI for violating the company's Self-Regulation Code for TV and Minors, relating to the prime-time broadcast of an episode of the programme "Un giorno in Pretura" (A Day in Court) dedicated to the criminal trial concerning the murder of two children from Foligno by a paedophile.
English 
Italian 