The Italian journalists' union on Friday attacked new norms aimed at protecting the privacy of public figures, approved this week in the wake of a high-profile vice and extortion probe.
FNSI chief Paolo Serventi Longhi protested that the rules laid down by the country's Private Data Protection Authority were "too general" to be applied.
The authority on Thursday banned the media from releasing news regarding "private facts and conduct", particularly of a sexual nature, which are "not of public interest".
It also said that when such information was released, only "essential" details were to be provided.
Journalists who breach the new rules face jail terms of up to two years and could be forced to pay damages, the regulator said.
The move followed an outcry over the case of government spokesman Silvio Sircana, whose name was dragged into an investigation into a vice and extortion ring run by well-known paparazzo Fabrizio Corona.
Several dailies on Wednesday carried transcripts of a bugged phone conversation between Corona and another photographer, Max Scarfone, in which the latter claimed to have photographed a "very important political person" kerb crawling on a street worked by transsexual prostitutes.
Il Giornale, a daily owned by the family of opposition chief and former premier Silvio Berlusconi, went further by identifying the politician as Sircana.
Scarfone apologised on Thursday to Sircana, who was briefly hospitalised under the pressure, admitting that he had "made the whole thing up as a joke".
The privacy authority subsequently accused the Italian press of having "released news which violated the rights and dignity of the persons concerned" and which had nothing to do with its right to inform readers.
The new norms were issued with "immediate effect".
But Serventi argued that it was not always easy to distinguish between personal details that the public had a right to know about and those which it did not.
"The right to report must be protected... Unfortunately, journalism as a whole is being made to pay for the irresponsible behaviour of reporters who seek improbable scoops and shaky news stories without checking their sources and without showing respect for people's dignity," he said.
Il Giornale's editor Maurizio Belpietro has been told he could face disciplinary proceedings over the Sircana case.
Sircana, meanwhile, was officially appointed on Friday as the spokesman of centre-left Premier Romano Prodi's ten-month-old government.
POLITICIANS CALL FOR WIRETAP CRACKDOWN.
The incident has led politicians on both sides of the political divide to renew a push for a law aimed at curbing media publication of leaked investigative wiretaps and ensuring the full application of Italy's privacy laws.
Such a bill was presented by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella in July but has since been languishing in the House while lawmakers deal with more urgent business.
Mastella said that "speeding up its approval would be positive and important for the country".
The bill includes hefty fines for newspapers which publish unauthorised or confidential transcripts of taped phone conversations.
It was drawn up after a series of such leaks triggered national scandals in the worlds of finance, soccer, telecommunications and TV broadcasting.
Politicians of all stripes have shown rare unity in condemning the phenomenon.
But critics of the media clampdown branded it a gagging order and insinuated that politicians were seeking to protect themselves as the vice and extortion probe unfolded.
SEARCH ON FOR CORONA FILES.
Corona was among three people arrested on Monday while nine others were placed under house arrest, including porn industry manager and director Riccardo Schicchi.
Lele Mora, a celebrity manager and advisor, was one of six people ordered to remain in Italy.
Corona and Mora are accused of running a prostitution ring in which aspiring models and starlets were 'hired out' to businessmen and celebrities for encounters, parties and holidays.
They are also accused of framing sports and showbusiness celebrities, businessmen and politicians and blackmailing them with compromising photos, in some cases using fake or manipulated images.
Berlusconi's daughter Barbara, Roma soccer ace Francesco Totti, Inter star Adriano, motorcycling champion Marco Melandri and Agnelli heir and Fiat executive Lapo Elkann were among those named as the victims of extortion or attempted extortion.
Investigators said they believed Corona possessed potentially compromising photos involving a host of public figures and that they were now searching for this material.
But Mora, who was questioned by prosecutors on Friday, denied such an archive existed.
"There is no secret archive," said Mora, who denied all wrongdoing and insisted that his only dealings with Corona were "as a friend".
