Italy shuts down pro-Amanda Knox website worldwide -- Sweden puts it back on web

http://blog.seattlepi.com/dempsey/2011/05/13/sweden-rescues-italian-amanda-knox-blog-google-are-you-watching-2/

What Italy (and Google) taketh away, the Swedes shall restore–and they’re not alone. Just yesterday, Google pulled the plug on Frank Sfarzo’s Perugia Shock, the only Amanda Knox case blog by an Italian reporter written in English. Never more important than during the ongoing appeal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, playing out in Perugia right now.

A vocal critic of the show trial, Frank didn’t spill state secrets. He did get on the dark side of prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who accused Frank of ”defamation by Website.” The press-bashing magistrate, convicted of abuse of office in 2009, convinced a Florentine judge to order Perugia Shock “sequestered.” Google, America’s Internet gorilla, played dead.

I’ve now read the court order, which names Mignini as the “injured party” and complainant. In a few terse graphs, he claims Perugia Shock must come down to prevent a “danger.” Further “criminal acts” on Frank’s part witnessed by “innumerable persons” who would then be free to spread the offense. Like me, I guess. Or the Italian journalist who pointed readers to the the cache file and said, “The posts are written in English for an international audience that otherwise would have trouble accessing Italian sources.”

Well, who needs Google blogger? Perugia Shock lives again–in duplicate, no less. Eric Hafner, an American who’s never been to Italy, found a new host in Stockholm and is rebuilding the site. Hafner was appalled by Google’s bowing down to what the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls “a trumped-up defamation suit.”

SNIP

http://www.cpj.org/2011/05/italian-prosecutor-files-defamation-lawsuit-shutte.php

Committee to Protect Journalists -- Defending Journalists Worldwide

New York, May 11, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Florence and Perugia authorities to drop the trumped-up defamation lawsuit against Perugia Shock, an English-language blog created and maintained by Frank Sfarzo, an Italian freelance journalist and blogger. Sfarzo has endured sustained harassment in retaliation for his reporting and commentary on the official investigation into the November 2007 murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher.

Sfarzo told CPJ that he received an email from Google, which hosts the site, last night informing him that a court order has been issued for the "preventive closure" of his blog dedicated to the Kercher case. In compliance with that order, Google took down Perugia Shock; it is now unavailable. It was from the court order, Sfarzo told CPJ, that he learned that Perugia Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini--who has a long-standing record of anti-press actions--has filed a lawsuit against Perugia Shock for "defamation, carried out by means of a website." The court order, which stemmed from Mignini's claim, was issued on February 23 by Florentine Judge Paola Belsino. Mignini is the lead prosecutor on the Kercher case.

"We call on Perugia Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini to drop his defamation lawsuit against Perugia Shock and allow it to remain online," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "This is hardly the first time Mignini has resorted to the law to silence his critics. It's a heavy-handed tactic that is bound to have a chilling effect on journalists in Italy."

CPJ has documented a history of official harassment, physical attack, and fabricated legal prosecution against Sfarzo--all stemming from his blog, which he created in 2007. The blog carried reporting and comments on the Kercher case. On it, Sfarzo regularly criticized what he considered flaws in the Kercher investigation, at times using harsh language to express his views. Sfarzo's case was a focus of CPJ's April 19 letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, which expressed concern at the anti-press actions of Perugia authorities.

SNIP