Italian Deputy Mayor Sued for Using Migrant Photo Against Migrants

Photographer Massimo Sestini is suing Paolo Polidori, deputy mayor of Trieste and member of the far-right League party, for €30,000 in damages. Polidori used Sestini's iconic aerial photograph of a boat carrying 227 migrants rescued by the Italian Navy on June 7, 2014, as part of the Mare Nostrum operation, to illustrate a Facebook post attacking mayors who opposed the government's strict immigration decree. Sestini's lawyer, Massimo Stefanutti, argues that Polidori violated copyright, moral rights, and the integrity of the work by using it to promote xenophobic rhetoric contrary to the image's humanitarian intent. The photo, which won second prize in the General News category at the 2015 World Press Photo contest, was taken from a Navy helicopter after two years of reporting. Sestini stated he gave the image to the world for humanitarian causes and cannot accept it being used against migrants. The case echoes a 2014 incident where photographer Oliviero Toscani sued the far-right party Brothers of Italy for using his photo in an anti-gay adoption poster, and composer Ludovico Einaudi's music was used without permission in a Five Star Movement anti-euro campaign ad.