Italy Makes 'Deliberately Getting On TV' A Crime?

from the please-explain-the-reasoning dept

Wed, Jun 18th 2008 12:52am — Mike Masnick

With all the new laws being proposed to try to deal with people committing stupid crimes with the sole intention of getting "famous" on YouTube, it seems fair to ask if the laws themselves make sense. However, some seem to be taking such laws even further. Reader Dave writes in to point out that Italy appears to have outlawed deliberately getting yourself on TV. The law was targeted at a prankster who's made quite a career for himself disrupting TV newscasts in order to promote condoms. He's (amazingly) been able to do this 20,000 times. You can understand why this might be frustrating -- but you would also think there would be other laws to deal with this. Instead, this new law sounds very broadly written, as you could get arrested for it even if you appear on TV and are "silent and immobile." So, simply standing behind a TV reporter during a newscast could now put you in prison in Italy. Something doesn't seem right about that.

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Filed Under: crime, italy, pranks, tv

22 Comments

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Joseph, 18 Jun 2008 @ 1:35am

It's not a law..
It's not a law, it's a decision by the court for interrupting a public service and the court said that may be so, even if you stand still.

(a dozen of people don't need to move to block a train or to interrupt any other public service)
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colony, 18 Jun 2008 @ 1:59am

ahh the irony
needing protection from someone promoting protection.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 3:13am

Re: It's not a law..
If you don't want members of the public in your footage - don't film in public!
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Italian exiled, 18 Jun 2008 @ 3:14am

there's worst
Unfortunately Italy is experiencing a lot of this repression lately.
In the last few weeks and in the next few ones, press will be denied the right to inform people (about accadiments in court of law), judges will be denied the right to investigate (by the abolition of wiretapping for so called "light" crimes like political bribery), citizens will be denied the right to sue big companies with class actions and army will be called to patrol the streets.

Please, help us!!
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Knightsbridge, 18 Jun 2008 @ 3:23am

Brilliant
Haha, this made me laugh!
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Go EU, 18 Jun 2008 @ 3:52am

Gov't sucks
See what happens when government steps in. Maybe there needs to be a committee put together to study this problem. Then in 90 days I want a report on how stupid this law or rule is.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 4:52am

Disturbing...
Would you buy condoms advertised by a man who leaps in front of the camera during a live news broadcast?

Something about that doesn't scream "reliable" to me.
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Skippy T. Mut, 18 Jun 2008 @ 5:08am

So...
If I were a cameraman in Italy could I run around with my camera and get everyone I film put in prison?
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John Duncan Yoyo, 18 Jun 2008 @ 5:23am

Since the Italian prime minister owns a bunch of TV stations this isn't much of a surprise. They would probably go after the guy in the rainbow wig with the John 3:16 sign.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 5:37am

Re: It's not a law..
If they cant handle the crowds why are they even bother to go "live"? Talk about catering to idiots.....cant take the heat kitchen you know what im talkin about.

As for newscasts are a public service?

riiiight, any "news" that relies on advertising is suspect by principal alone, let alone the rest of it.

Think of it this way, today's news is "dumbed down" to the point it will attract viewers stupid enough to actually buy the products advertised. Neat huh?
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HS, 18 Jun 2008 @ 5:37am

Who cares what this guy does. I personally think it hilarious when people do that kind of stuff on live TV.
BabaBooey BabaBooey BabaBooey BabaBooey BabaBooey
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Xris, 18 Jun 2008 @ 6:05am

20,000 times?
That's like once a day for 54 years. That can't be right, can it?
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Xris, 18 Jun 2008 @ 6:10am

one more thing ...
From the article:
The court has also ruled that anyone who deliberately gets onto TV while standing in a public place can commit an offence ...
Does that mean the reporters themselves would be committing a crime? They're deliberately causing themselves to be on TV by reporting in front of a camera.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 7:11am

Re: Re: It's not a law..
Umm, once more in English, please
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Captain Insano, 18 Jun 2008 @ 7:40am

Im all for beating the hell out of stupid dumbass in the background waving with cell phone. Hi Im a dumbass can you see me on tv? I would love to see someone come up and slap the living shit out of loud cell phone talker waving to tv camera.
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Nicola Battista, 18 Jun 2008 @ 7:47am

Gabriele Paolini is crap anyway... ;)
I agree on the fact that Italy is seeing a lot of repression and censorship under the current government of Mr.Berlusconi. After behaving for a couple months, in the last few days the guy has shown his old (and real) face and is back to trying to use the law and his power so save his own ass and a few friends. If his lawyer is so sure he will not be sentenced in the Mills case (a long story involving bribes, Hollywood movies broadctasting rights for tv and some English lawyer) then why try to make new laws (one approved today by our Senate) to block certain criminal trials (including those related to Berlusconi)?
That said: Gabriele Paolini is an idiot; not sure whether he is someone with any mental health issues or if he does all this intentionally. He once appeared during a BBC correspondence from Italy advertising the url for his own porn site. He was even sentenced for that site depicting him and other people in sexual acts. Also, while many times he has appeared promoting condoms, some other times he was saying "Viva il Papa" ("hurrah for the Pope", when John Paul II was Pope) and I saw him one time screaming some assorted nonsense at a few politicians, like "Berlusconi assassino, Pannella pedofilo!" (now I certainly am not a fan of Berlusconi, but I have no idea while he was calling him "assassin" or why did he think that old radical party leader Pannella was in his opinion a "pedophile")...
Sorry for the long text; I was just meaning to say: Paolini is certainly not reliable as a condom or anti-AIDS campaigner/supporter...
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Overcast, 18 Jun 2008 @ 8:08am

The court has also ruled that anyone who deliberately gets onto TV while standing in a public place can commit an offence

Does this include politicians campaigning? If so - I'd be all for it.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 8:36am

Re: Re: It's not a law..
"As for newscasts are a public service?

riiiight, any "news" that relies on advertising is suspect by principal alone, let alone the rest of it.

Think of it this way, today's news is "dumbed down" to the point it will attract viewers stupid enough to actually buy the products advertised. Neat huh?"

.. You realize the irony of saying something like that on a news website supported by advertising...right? Pardon me, I see a Google Ad I need to go click...
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Jim C, 18 Jun 2008 @ 9:01am

Does mean Paris Hilton will get a life sentence?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 11:05am

Re: Disturbing...
Because you are hoping to prevent having a kid like that.
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Jason, 18 Jun 2008 @ 11:16am

Existing laws should be good enough...
This should be able to be handled with a simple civil harassment suit. This class of offense is civil in nature - it represents a non-threatening act that willfully harms a business.

It ought to have civil penalties, not criminal ones, unless the actual acts were de facto disturbing the peace, in which case again, the existing law should be good enough.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2008 @ 8:17pm

well thats it, goodbye football league in Italy, all I can say is that once people in stadiums start getting sued thats when reform will happen
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