Category: PR and Crisis Management

The management of an emergency relies upon hope because hope is what drives people not to “give up”. It is, therefore, essential to intervene on the unscrupulous behaviour of those media which, with the excuse of “inform”, foment anxiety and confusion.

Fake news aside, which by now like bacteria have permanently installed themselves in the body of social networks, the negative role embodied by “professional” information and entertainment is becoming increasingly apparent.

Despite the invitation – that nothing more than this could be – of the Communications Authority to talk about COVID-19 using authoritative sources there is a proliferation of television broadcasts providing unreliable data or feeding debates whose only purpose is to raise controversy. Continue reading “COVID-19 and morbidity in professional information in Italy”

In Italy, a “snobbish” conception of the right to privacy and the protection of personal data are about to cause a sensational mistake in the fight against COVID-19: that of destroying (or not collecting) the geolocation data of infected subjects.

The right to privacy can certainly be limited for higher interests, as was the case with freedom of expression, freedom of movement and public gathering and economic freedom. Moreover, the GDPR, if applicable in an emergency regime, would impose nonetheless to protect ALL fundamental rights and freedoms, therefore, life first, and not only “privacy”. Continue reading “COVID-19: destroying (or failing to collect) geolocalization data of the infected people harms Science”

Nobody these days wants to listen to hair-splitting legalese. Still, when this COVID-19 tragedy is over, the survivors hopefully question what happened to our Constitutional rights. Maybe some scholars investigate the flaws of the emergency legislation, or the risks the democratic institutions took, or how the bureaucracy monster has not given up his lust for the sacrifices that feed him.

The case of the “self-certification” of the path and the reasons justifying the departure from home that authorities imposed is the most obvious example. Continue reading “COVID-19: why the Italian government-required “self-certification” doesn’t work”

Users’ complaints about the poor speed of the Internet connections gain momentum. Petitions, newspaper articles, and timely and inevitable initiatives to “get compensation” accuse operators and Internet providers of not providing “enough bandwidth”. In times of crisis, they say, this “slows down smart-working”, but it isn’t likely so. Continue reading “COVID-19 and “slow Internet complaints” in Italy”

There is an increasing criticism of the constitutional legitimacy of government action in the COVID-19 emergency, and even in this specific area, there is inaccurate information circulating about the arbitrary “suspension of individual rights” and the centralization in the hands of the executive of (very) strong powers.

At least from a formal point of view, the rules are followed as the suspension of certain fundamental rights (freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of teaching, freedom of assembly and freedom of business activities) was ordered by decree-law no. 6 of 23 February 2020. Continue reading “COVID-19 and Constitutional Issues in Italy”