Questo contributo è destinato agli Studi in onore del Professor Roberto Pessi

The paper analyses the regulation of the employment contract of journalists in Italy. The analysis is focused on the problem of qualification of journalist as “subordinated” employee or (better) as a worker protected by law traditionally applied to employee. It is noted (critically) that, though since from ‘60s the sectoral collective agreement, which law has attributed erga omnes efficacy to, enlarged its field of applying also to freelancers who continuously grant the provision of articles on specific subjects but without being obliged to respect working time and to partecipate to daily editorial activity, later journalists have been systematically (and unconstitutionally) excluded from the applying of all the laws have recently aimed to extend the rights originally thought only in favour of employees also to self-employees who provide for services by themselves and integrated as a stable part of the organization of a firm. It is argued that the public relevance of information does not justify this exclusion ad it is welcomed a new ruling of Supreme Court of Cassation that abandons the traditional jurisprudence according to which it is unlawful to work professionally as journalist without being registered in the public register of professional jounalists and the employment contract is null.