South Tyrol is a success story. From a backward stretch of land in the Dolomites, which threatened to become a source of unrest due to the decades-long dispute between the German-speaking majority and the state authorities in Rome, the area developed into a prosperous European model country. Only very few people want to "go away from Rome" and go home to Austria, where South Tyrol belonged until the end of the First World War. All South Tyrolean linguistic and ethnic groups are aware of the advantages of their existence as citizens of Italy in a province with ever greater autonomy powers.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta, based in Rome.

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The Christian Democratic South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) has contributed much to this success story. As the dominant political force of German-speaking South Tyroleans, the SVP has determined the fate of the province since the first elections in 1948: from the first Statute of Autonomy in 1948 to the second in 1972, in a dialogical struggle with Rome. A power cluster has emerged around the "state party" SVP, which reaches into all areas of society, from the economy to the administration to the media. The fact that this cluster is increasingly viewed critically, that spotlights are being directed into the back rooms of the amigos from an increasingly diverse media landscape, is a healthy development.

Major publishing house complains of "media stalking"

Against this background, South Tyrol is currently experiencing a bizarre media affair. The large publishing house "Athesia", led by the powerful association functionary and politician Michl Ebner, has sued the small, if not entirely powerless news portal "Salto" for a "sustained and urgent slander campaign". There is talk of a "media stalking", for which "Salto" is to pay a fine of 150,000 euros, which the publisher wants to donate to charitable purposes in the event of a guilty verdict.

"Salto" was founded ten years ago, the Bolzano portal with around 30,000 regular users and subscribers has developed into an important, often recalcitrant and consistently bilingual South Tyrolean media voice. In a brief justifying the complaint, the lawyer of "Athesia" listed 58 articles on "Salto" from the years 2018 to 2022, in which different authors on different topics are said to have deliberately described the publisher and its owners as "damaging to reputation and image". In principle, the threshold for defamation charges is lower in Italy than in Germany. But in a good two-thirds of the cases, the investigating judges immediately reject such charges against media representatives. Even the current case could not come to court. "Athesia" spokesman Elmar Pichler has assured that they are trying to settle the matter through a mediation discussion.

"Athesia" controls most of the media and advertising business

Max Benedikter, publisher of "Salto", sees the ad as an attempt at intimidation, as a SLAPP. The acronym stands for "Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation", a form of tactical abuse of rights to exclude unwelcome opponents from public discourse. "Athesia" apparently wants to prevent "Salto" from reporting on the publishing house, the Ebner publishing family and their economic and political interests, says Benedikter.

"Athesia" controls about 80 percent of the media and advertising business in South Tyrol. The publishing house publishes the most important newspapers in South Tyrol and in the neighbouring province of Trentino, operates news and sales portals, as well as radio stations, bookshops and advertising agencies. Publishing boss Michl Ebner, now 70 years old, has been President of the South Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce since 2008 and a grey eminence in the SVP, for which he sat for many years in the Parliament in Rome and in the European Parliament. Michl Ebner's brother Toni, who is five years younger, has been editor-in-chief of "Dolomiten", the most widely read South Tyrolean daily newspaper, since 1995. The lawyer of "Athesia" accuses the author Christoph Franceschini, author of most of the incriminated articles, of showing a "kind of paranoia towards the Athesia Group and the Ebner family". In media reports, it is said that obsessive is rather the behavior of the Goliath "Athesia" towards the David "somersault". As is well known, the fight against the young David did not end well for the giant.