The Lazio TAR confirms the fine against the TV programs of Adriano Panzironi and Life 120
Agcom's fines The one against Gm Comunicazione is only one of the actions in the encirclement maneuver of Agcom against Panzironi. Over the years, the Authority has often taken measures against the Life 120 theses and TV broadcasts. In 2020, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, advice to tackle Covid-19 ends up in the crosshairs. A few months later, the six-month suspension of the programs Il Cerca salute, the format par excellence of Panzironi, and of the special What they didn't tell you about coronavirus for six months, which the Lazio TAR revokes, however. Agcom also questions Facebook and Youtube due to video clips in which the journalist discusses Sars-Cov-2. And finally, Italian Broadcasting srls, a company in the galaxy of the creator of the Life 120 diet, fined 61 thousand euros for broadcasting its formats via satellite without authorization. The resolution referred to a monitoring which took place on 17 and 18 March of the Life Tv network, broadcast on Sky channel 880, which broadcasts the contents of Panzironi, from which it emerged that there were no authorizations for the transmission of channels or programs with that name.
To these numbers are added the 290 thousand euro fine of the Antitrust Authority against Life 120 Italia and Welcome Time Elevator (the publisher of the Life 120 books), to which is added also the television broadcaster Teleuniverso, which controls the channel where most of the programs in which the diet guru is the protagonist are broadcast.
Gm Comunicazione's appeal against the sanction involved Agcom and the Ministry of Health. According to the Tar judges, Agcom made a general evaluation of the programming of the Life 120 channels, "taking into consideration the in-depth analysis on diseases, commented by Adriano Panzironi, the testimonies of those who follow the Life 120 lifestyle and the teleshopping of products ", on all the supplements and the book How to live 120 years. And on the basis of this monitoring he decided that the programming" is instrumental in advertising the products. "A thesis that the TAR shares, as well as the accusation made by Agcom on the fact that the schedule pushes us to believe that Life 120 helps to heal from serious diseases. The Tar writes that the fact that "in a continuous and insistent way, throughout the day, insights and testimonies are transmitted in which acknowledgment of the benefits (improvement or even healing) obtained as a direct consequence of the adoption of the "Life 120" lifestyle (also including the intake of supplements), is certainly capable of generating in viewers a distrust, or at least a strong doubt, about the effectiveness of traditional medicine ". For the TAR, moreover, Agcom was right to contest a conduct detrimental to the protection of health, as well as in raising two fines, because there are several disputed violations. For these reasons, the appeal is rejected.
The trial for abuse of the profession The new hearing of the trial for abuse of the medical profession against Adriano Panzironi, accused with his books, starting with the manual, is scheduled for October instead Live up to 120 years, TV programs, first of all Il cerca salute, and supplements have crossed over into the perimeter of the medical profession, which in Italy is subject to strict rules and specific qualifications. Titles that Panzironi cannot boast.
After the complaint in 2018 by the Order of Doctors of Rome and the Nas investigations, in October 2019 the indictment of Panzironi and his twin Roberto arrives, who with him he pulls the strings of the Life 120 galaxy. A network of companies that moves a turnover of several million euros, recently also extended to neighborhood shops, opened in Aprilia (Latina), Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), Piacenza and Udine. Neither is a doctor or dietician. What the court of Rome will have to establish is whether the contents of the books written by Panzironi, the self-produced TV programs broadcast in local broadcasters and the Life 120 brand supplements represent an abuse of the medical profession, as the public prosecution believes, supported by the substitute prosecutor Francesco Marinaro. The abusive exercise of the medical profession can cost imprisonment from six months to a year, plus a fine ranging between 10 thousand and 50 thousand euros.
The orders of the doctors of Rome have lined up as civil parties against Panzironi, Naples, Milan and Venice. Then there is the order of journalists from Lazio, in whose register the creator of the diet who promises to live up to 120 years is registered and from which he has been temporarily suspended. And Assipan, the Confcommercio bakers association, which is believed to be damaged by the barrier that Life 120 raises towards bread, pasta and other carbohydrates typical of the Mediterranean diet. Panzironi was also denounced by the Italian Diabetes Society (Sid) and by the Diabetic Doctors Association (Amd).
