Italy’s highest court, the Cassazione, yesterday made yet another ruling on what citizens may and may not say to one another in the case of a disagreement.
Now it is illegal to tell someone to “vai a cagare” [“go and defecate”] because to do so would be to offend the person’s honour.
The ruling adds to considerable confusion over when it is legal to use a swear word in Italy for in 2007 the Court declared that the equivalent of the f-word is so often used that it had entered common language.
In February this year, however, the Court ruled that the word cannot be used in a dispute between neighbours.
On Thursday a man from Piedmont had appealed against a conviction for using the “defecate” expression in a work argument on the grounds of the 2007 ruling. The conviction stands and the man will have to pay a fine of 1,000 euros, according to ANSA.
Do you think it is the job of the High Court to rule on such matters?
