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Italian porn star bids to join Rome city council

Retired Italian porn star Llona Staller, better known as "Cicciolina", on Thursday said she would run for Rome's city council - 34 years after the blonde bombshell started out in politics.

Published: 11 April 2013 16:57 CEST

Italian porn star bids to join Rome city council

Photo: Andre Durand/AFP

The Hungarian-born 61-year-old said she would be running for the historic Italian Liberal Party and would campaign to legalize prostitution, cannabis for medicinal use and civil unions.

"My programme will be liberal, libertarian and environmentalist," said Cicciolina, the former wife of US artist Jeff Koons who immortalized the couple in a series of kitsch naked sculptures.

The ex-model first ran for parliament in the Green Party in 1979 before starting her porn career in 1983 with "The Red Telephone" — a film she co-produced with porn impresario Riccardo Schicchi.

Cicciolina was elected to parliament in 1987.

She offered to have sex with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to prevent the Gulf War — and renewed the offer in 2002 as the campaign to invade Iraq gathered force in Britain and the United States.

In 1991, she founded a party called the "Party of Love" with fellow Italian porn star Moana Pozzi — which became a popular as a protest party amid a wave of political corruption scandals.

Critics say she is as an example of Italian politics as an international source of amusement, but Cicciolina's backers say she has been a pioneer of women's rights and liberal values.

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Italy’s press freedom ranking drops amid fears of government 'censorship'

The annual World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday ranked Italy 46th, which was five places lower than in 2023 and behind all other western European countries and most EU member states.

Italy ranked alongside Poland (47th), while Hungary, Malta, Albania and Greece were the only other countries in Europe to score lower.

France, Spain, Germany and most other major European countries improved their ranking in 2024, with Norway, Denmark and Sweden topping the table for press freedom again this year.

Globally however press freedom has worsened due to political attacks in the past year, according to RSF, including the detention of journalists, suppression of independent media outlets and widespread dissemination of misinformation.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

The index ranks 180 countries on the ability of journalists to work and report freely and independently.

Italy fell in the ranking amid concerns about lawsuits filed against journalists by politicians and following recent allegations of a creeping government influence on the country’s media.

“For the most part, Italian journalists enjoy a climate of freedom,” RSF said.

“But they sometimes give in to the temptation to censor themselves, either to conform to their news organisation’s editorial line, or to avoid a defamation suit or other form of legal action, or out of fear of reprisals by extremist groups or organised crime.”

Italian journalists have in recent months alleged censorship at state broadcaster Rai, which critics say is increasingly influenced by Giorgia Meloni’s government, while a member of her coalition government is trying to acquire news agency AGI.

Italian journalists also “denounce attempts by politicians to obstruct their freedom to cover judicial cases by means of a “gag law” – legge bavaglio – on top of the SLAPP procedures that are common practice in Italy,” RSF said.

READ ALSO: ‘Warning’ to Italy’s journalists as court fines reporter for defaming Meloni

It noted the fact that ‘defamation’ remains a crime in Italy, and that this is often used in lawsuits filed against individual journalists by powerful public figures – such as in the high-profile 2023 case of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suing anti-mafia journalist Roberto Saviano.

Defamation through the media can be punished in Italy with prison sentences of between six months to three years.

Mafia threats also remain a major issue in Italy, RSF noted, where some 20 journalists are under round-the-clock police protection after being the targets of intimidation and attacks.

“Journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence for their investigative work,” RSF said.

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