THEY MAKE for improbable bedfellows in an unlikely common cause. Italian and international editors of major news outlets, including Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia, anti-Mafia prosecutors, and a member of the US administration have united in recent days to deplore attempts by the Berlusconi government to make official phone-tapping less easily sanctioned.
The legislation was nodded through the Senate last week and this week goes to the upper house. It is seen by many as the latest of the prime minister’s attempts to use tailor-made laws to shield his government from investigation and embarrassing allegations in the wake of the corruption-linked resignation of industry minister Claudio Scajolal. And US assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer on Friday echoed prosecutors’s concerns about the effect on the fight against the Mafia: “From a prosecutor’s point of view, we don’t want anything to occur that prevents the Italians from doing as good a job as they have in the past . . . the existing system (of wiretaps) has been extraordinarily helpful. Italian law enforcement under the existing system has been an extraordinary partner to the US.”
Mr Berlusconi’s supporters say the law is about protecting ordinary citizens from press intrusion and preventing fishing expeditions by prosecutors with suspicions but no evidence, a recurring theme in Mr Berlusconi’s long-running battle with what he says is a “politicised” judiciary. The proposals would limit bugging to cases where police have firm evidence a crime had been, or was being, committed and require approval by a panel of judges. Special permission would have to be granted for the bugging of MPs and priests. Media owners publishing transcripts illegally could be fined up to €465,000, and journalists face jail.
The row takes place against the background of yet another dispute over Mr Berlusconi’s alleged manipulation of news in both state-funded TV RAI and the three terrestrial stations he owns. RAI news presenter Maria Luisa Busi has resigned very publicly over what she claims is the political bias and dumbing down of the programme she worked on. Her news editor had been appointed largely at the prime minister’s instigation and the programme has since been accused of substantially ignoring the scandals surrounding Mr Berlusconi’s personal life. It was fined by the regulator for under-reporting the opposition during recent elections.
Mr Berlusconi, it seems, has his own definition of press freedom.