It’s a double-whammy day for Google in Europe. Less than 24 hours after the European Commission asked Google to respond to complaints lodged by three other search engines, an Italian court convicted three Google executives for breach of privacy, relating to a 2006 Google Video post (before Google acquired YouTube) of a bullying attack by schoolmates on a Turin boy with Down Syndrome.

David Carl Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer, George De Los Reyes, former chief financial officer, and Peter Fleischer, Google’s chief privacy counsel, all received six-month suspended sentences.

Yes, the trio stay out of prison, but it points yet again to Italy’s near hostile approach to new media. As Reuters points out, “Censoring of web sites has become a hot issue in Italy in recent months, following a spate of hate sites against officials including Berlusconi.”