Record communist facing Italian calumny (9)
I believe the answer is:
discredit
'calumny' is the definition.
(calumny is slandering or discrediting someone)
'record communist facing italian' is the wordplay.
'record' becomes 'disc' (eg a CD, compact disc).
'communist' becomes 'red' (red can informally mean communist).
'facing' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'italian' becomes 'it' (abbreviation for Italian).
'disc'+'red'+'it'='DISCREDIT'
(Other definitions for discredit that I've seen before include "Loss of reputation" , "Smear" , "Damage reputation of, cause to be disbelieved" , "Scandal'" , "Bring (someone) into bad repute" .)