Laughing in (bad) taste: satire between freedom of expression and duty of respect.

It is common to think that satire should not have limits, since it is intrinsically tied to the freedom of expression that represents one of the characterizing elements of liberal democracies and therefore it deserves protection at all costs.

But is it truly so? Does satire indeed have the right to do as it pleases? Up to what point can we accept forms of expression that ridicule things that for people are important, such as religion or political convictions, or that joke on human tragedies even if they are by definition not harming anyone’s honour? And what to say when they give voice to homophobic, racist and sexist opinions? Should the concept of freedom of satire be absolute or is it instead necessary to think about whether it is appropriate to introduce some limitations?

Organized in cooperation with the Chairs of “Legal Data Processing”, “Advanced Legal Data Processing” and the specialization courses in “Digital Investigations” and “Data Protection” of the University of Milan (Prof. Giovanni Ziccardi – Prof. Pierluigi Perri).