Joint statement by Al-Haq and ELSC

Il Corriere Della Sera, one of Italy's most prominent newspapers, has paid around 15,000 Euros in damages to Shawan Jabarin, the General Director of Al-Haq, for falsely accusing him in 2021 of being a terrorist and murderer, an unfounded allegation based on Israeli propaganda and smear campaigns. Mr. Jabarin will  donate the compensation to Al-Haq and UNRWA. 

What Happened?

On 20 December 2021, Laura Boldrini, an Italian Member of Parliament (MP), invited two representatives from human rights organisations; Al-Haq and Addameer, to a video-conference hearing at the Chamber of Deputies in the Italian Parliament. This hearing was organised in response to Israel's unlawful criminalization of six Palestinian NGOs, including Al-Haq and Addameer in October 2021. This designation of NGOs as ‘terrorist organisations’ was widely rejected and condemned by EU states and institutions, including Italy, as well as by the United Nations and various international organisations.

However, two days after the hearing, Il Corriere della Sera, Libero Quotidiano, and Il Tempo published articles containing false and defamatory statements about Addameer, Al-Haq, and its General Director, Shawan Jabarin, labelling him a 'terrorist'. Additionally, the newspapers omitted essential contextual information around Israel’s targeted designation of six Palestinian civil society organisations as ‘terror organisations’, thereby infringing on the readers' right to access free and impartial information. We believe that the newspaper based its information on unreliable sources and existing smear tactics frequently used by Israel to criminalise, silence, and control Palestinian rights voices, including the circulation of false accusations by Israeli officials.

Further to this, the lawyer of Mr. Jabarin has been attacked and smeared. We fully reject these accusations and consider them intimidation tactics and character assassination. We stand by our representatives and their right to freedom of expression, and reject the smearing campaigns used by Israel and its allies in weaponizing antisemitism to suppress dissent.

Accountability

After being summoned to Court, Il Corriere Della Sera accepted a settlement agreement, which included compensating Shawan Jabarin for ‘reputational’ damage suffered and publishing an article retracting the defamatory claims. Despite reporting on the incident and retracting the terrorist claim, the newspaper failed to acknowledge that it was their own publication that had defamed Mr. Jabarin. 

This case highlights the critical need for responsible journalism, not only on the situation in Palestine and the violations the Palestinian people are subjected to, but also concerning racist discourse and misinformation. Already in December 2022, ELSC sent a complaint to the Order of Journalists of Lazio and Lombardy, pointing out violations of the deontological obligations of truthfulness and accuracy to which professional journalists are bound. In November 2022, the former condemned the actions of Il Tempo and requested the rectification of the article concerning the case of Shawan Jabarin. Two years later, and considering the two decisions in place, the Order of Journalists of Lombardy has still not issued a ruling, an act indicative of the lack of attention paid by the Italian media to their disclosure responsibilities.

What we want

This legal battle aims to hold media outlets accountable and to support Palestinian voices. Not only have some media outlets been defaming Palestinians, but the Italian mainstream press has also been accused of reporting inaccurate information about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime and its commission of international crimes against the Palestinian people as a whole. There is a pressing need to expose and discuss the quality of information in Italy and the right to access impartial information through verified, reliable and unbiased sources.

This legal battle exposes the various tactics used by Israel to smear human rights defenders and is a testament to our collective will and efforts to challenge the suppression of Palestinian voices. It also highlights the complicity of Italian media outlets, which should respect the Italian public's right to access accurate and credible information about the atrocities committed in Palestine.

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