Reuters
ANALYSIS-Berlusconi's TV tactics stir unease in Italy
10.23.09, 5:39 AM ETITALY -
By Daniel Flynn
ROME, Oct 23 (Reuters) - When Italy's top court stripped Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of his immunity from prosecution, he vowed to defend himself in the only arena that really counts.
"The two trials against me are false, laughable, absurd, and I'll show this to Italians by going on television," he said.
In court, Berlusconi faces two cases expected to resume later this year. He is accused of tax fraud and false accounting in the purchase of TV rights by
But in a country where nearly 80 percent of citizens regard TV as their main source of information, the power of television in shaping Italian public opinion can hardly be overstated.
And few people are more aware of its power than the prime minister, whose ownership of Mediaset and control over state broadcaster RAI give him sway over channels watched by almost 90 percent of Italians every day.
"Don't you understand, that if something is not on television it doesn't exist," Berlusconi once told a close associate.
But with the prime minister on the defensive after months of sex scandals and legal setbacks, many now fear he is using his grip on Italy's media to suffocate criticism.
When a judge ordered his Fininvest holding to pay 750 million euros in damages for bribery in a 1990s takeover battle, Berlusconi promised: "You'll hear some good stuff about him."
Days later a crew from Mediaset's Canale5 tracked the judge through Milan's streets, criticising his heavy smoking and his "eccentric" turquoise socks -- raising howls of protest from magistrates and a rash of similar footwear among the opposition.
"Berlusconi has always used his own media to destroy, smear, ridicule and humiliate his perceived enemies," said Alex Stille, an author on Italy. "But the intensity of the latest campaign, whereby anyone who speaks up against Berlusconi is singled out for character assassination, is singular and very disturbing."
PREDATOR OF PRESS FREEDOM?
When the editor of the newspaper of the Catholic bishop's conference criticised the premier's relationship with a teenage model, the Il Giornale newspaper owned by Berlusconi's brother accused him of homosexuality, prompting his resignation.
Berlusconi is suing newspapers in Italy and abroad for their coverage of a call girl's allegations that she was paid by a businessman to sleep with the premier after a party in November.
Italians have also been treated to the bizarre spectacle of a newspaper owned by the prime minister's family campaigning for citizens not to pay the licence fee for the state broadcaster, after Berlusconi bridled at its muted criticism.
A protest for press freedom in Rome this month drew some 100,000 people. Watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers said Italy has slipped down its rankings for a second year, to 49th, and that Berlusconi was close to being added to its list of Predators of Press Freedom, a first for a European leader.
"The situation is quite worrying and Berlusconi wields an influence that is pretty dangerous for the quality of Italian democracy," said Daniele Albertazzi, senior lecturer in European Media at the University of Birmingham.
Berlusconi narrowly avoided an embarrassing rebuke from European lawmakers on Wednesday when his conservative allies overturned by three votes a resolution to chide him. But the gesture was largely symbolic: Brussels has no power to intervene and Berlusconi has not broken Italy's media ownership law.
ONLY TV MATTERS
The 2004 media law, drafted by his previous government, specifies an individual must control over 20 percent of the media to incur sanction, including everything from Internet, to 800 local TV channels and the 150 national papers.
Berlusconi, in addition to his grip on television, controls Italy's largest publisher and advertising agency, and a weekly news magazine but that is only a fraction of the whole media.
"The problem in Italy is that the only system that has any importance is the television market in terms of how people think and vote," said Albertazzi.
Internet penetration in Italy remains well below the European average and newspaper circulation is low and limited to the higher income brackets. Italy's best-seller, the stately Corriere della Sera, sells half a million copies: a fraction of the 3 million sold by tabloid The Sun in Britain.
In contrast, 46 percent of Italians spend between two and four hours a day in front of the TV, with 17 percent spending more than four hours. While the Agcom media regulator has fined Mediaset channels for political bias, it has had little impact.
Opposition lawmakers have criticised as political RAI's decision to pull its programming from Rupert Murdoch's Sky Italia pay TV and launch a joint service with Mediaset, its direct competitor in the free-to-air advertising market.
Many backers of the opposition Democratic Party -- including its current leader Dario Franceschini -- have publicly regretted that the left did not pass a conflict of interests law despite governing twice since Berlusconi entered politics in 1994.
Instead it is Berlusconi who is now planning legislation. He has promised to embark on a constitutional reform process, aimed at increasing the powers of the prime minister and bringing public prosecutors under more direct government control.
"This would be a very serious change in the constitution, a shift to a populist form of government without the checks and balances used in a democracy," said James Walston of the American University in Rome. "Much needed economic reforms are now almost certainly going to go on the backburner."
Copyright 2009 Reuters
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