I’m publishing a letter by the Honourable Massimo Donadi, the leader of Italia dei Valori in the Lower House. It’s addressed to the Privacy Tsar and relates to the suspension of the programme Le Iene.

"We invite the Privacy Tsar to reconsider his action.
It would be appropriate if the broadcast of the programme “Le Iene” were to be permitted, because, if it is true that the data was stolen from the relevant people without their knowledge, it is also true that anonymity is also guaranteed, neither more nor less than in similar programmes often shown in the satirical programme on Italia Uno.
We don’t want to think that we use one yardstick for parliamentarians and a different one for other citizens. In fact, specifically the politicians, who have a public role that is based on mass communications, have less occasion than others to call for the protection of their own privacy.
And don’t say, with great hypocrisy that it is necessary to protect the image and the authority of Parliament. Because the dignity of Parliament is defended with acts and with laws approved by them and anyway the information resulting from this pseudo-investigation is already in the public domain, in fact even more so than if the broadcast of the programme had been allowed to go ahead."