Using vulgar language to slam politicians isn't OK even at election time, Italy's top court ruled Monday.
Tough criticism is acceptable but not the use of ''extreme language,'' the highest court of appeals said.
The Cassation Court upheld a fine on a man, identified as Donato S., for handing out leaflets which were adjudged to have defamed a southern Italian mayor.
The leaflets called the mayor ''a miserable charlatan, power fanatic, wheeler-dealer and immoral political presence''.
Although these were not in themselves ''highly offensive,'' the Cassation judges ruled, they assumed the level of ''full-fledged, vulgar defamation'' when accompanied by adjectives such as ''ignoble'' and ''sleazy''.
Criticising an official's term in office was fine, the court ruled, as long as ''the language doesn't go over the top''.
It cautioned rivals in Italy's April 13-14 elections - at both the national and local level - to ''keep on the right side of the line'' during their campaigns.
photo: Former centre-left Rome mayor Francesco Rutelli's bid for re-election plastered with opposition slogan, in Roman dialect, So Now You Wake Up?
