ROME – An Italian appeal court on Friday rejected an appeal by Italian Insider’s chief editor against his lower court conviction on charges of criminally "tarnishing the image" of the FAO and three of its executives. But appeal judges reduced the first instance sentence handed down to the reporter and the FAO chose not to be legally represented at the appeal hearing, signalling an evident retreat by the UN agency from using a local jurisdiction to try and muzzle the media.

 Judge Vincenzo Capozza at the end of the hearing ruled that the conviction of Insider editor John Phillips was confirmed by the panel of three judges but said that they recognized ‘general extenuating circumstances,’ which had not been recognized by the Rome Tribunal in the first instance conviction of the British journalist in 2019.

 The Corte di Appello therefore reduced from 1800 euros to 1000 euros the fine handed down to Phillips for the contested articles about the FAO and its executives, Mario Lubetkin, Clara Velez Fraga and former IT director Florentin Albu.

 The judges ordered Phillips to pay additional costs of 1,800 euros each to Albu, Fraga and Lubetkin. The FAO renounced sending its lawyer to contest the appeal, meaning it did not claim or get awarded extra costs.

 The extra costs of 5,400 euros are in addition to a total of some 60,000 euros in costs and advance payment of civil damages that the Rome Tribunal ordered Phillips to pay the trio and the FAO in 2019. 

 The absence of the FAO lawyer from Friday’s hearing came after a preliminary judge in a parallel case last year dismissed, on the ground that there was no defamation, a second libel case against Phillips brought by then FAO director general, José Graziano da Silva.

 The appeal court judges will make known their reasons for their decision in a ‘motivation’ report that will be issued in 60 days, judicial officials said.

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