There is a difference between defamation and investigative reporting. An investigation gathers numerous pieces of evidence in order to reveal them to the reader. Journalists crave as much information as possible in order to dig more deeply, to find evidence that demonstrates, nails down, defends the facts. Those engaging in defamation on the other hand take an item out of context, a private matter that has no relation whatsoever with public affairs, and use it against the person whom they’ve decided to smear. Democracy is at risk when, at the time you turn on the computer to write your article, you think: ‘Tomorrow they’re going to attack me for things that have nothing to do with public life, nothing to do with any crime committed.’ You haven’t done anything wrong, but they will use your private life against you, force you to defend yourself. So, whoever you are, mayor, councilman, physician, journalist, think first before you criticize. When this happens, freedom of the press starts to crack, freedom of expression begins to crack.

Obviously, Italy isn’t China, or a fascist dictatorship; no one is arrested for what he writes. But the confusion between defamation and investigation is a scheme. It is a way for those who smear others to defend themselves. The purpose is to be able to say: ‘We’re all alike.’ In the end the mudslinging machine’s strategy is to be able to say ‘You do it too’, ‘We all do it.’ And this technique works very well, because basically that’s what people want to hear. Because, if we are all alike, no one needs to feel better than anyone else, or do anything to be better than anyone else. The mudslinging machine says we all have dirty hands, we’re all the same.

The strength of democracy lies in diversity. But the instinct that is unfortunately emerging in the nation is to say: we’re all alike, all identical, all one and the same. That’s where the mudslinging machine wins. We must be able to spot differences. Difference is what the mudslinging machine doesn’t want the viewer, the reader, the citizen to discern. Human weakness is one thing, crime is something else. A slip-up is one thing, extortion another matter. A politician can blunder, it means he’s doing something. But a person who makes a misstep is very different from one who is corrupt.