The lawsuit relates to an article published last year when Giorgia Meloni was a member of parliament and leader of the national conservative Brothers of Italy.
Since the election last autumn, Giorgia Meloni is the country's prime minister.
In the article, it was revealed that Meloni tried to get the Italian covid commissioner to buy protective masks for hospitals from a company run by businessman Fabio Pietrella, who was also a Member of Parliament for Italy's Brothers.
The lawsuit against the two journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Stefano Feltri has been criticized by both the International Press Institute and the European Federation of Journalists, who have also demanded that the defamation suit be withdrawn and that the Italian parliament reform the country's defamation legislation.