Media tycoon gags free speech (Berlusconi owns private broadcaster, largest publishing house, etc)

The Australian ^ | November 09, 2009 8:30PM | Alessandra Rizzo

[Former Military Chick]

FOR a tycoon whose family owns newspapers, magazines and TV networks and is hailed as a great communicator, Silvio Berlusconi fights with the media a lot. The Italian premier has attacked the domestic and international media for months, suing two left-leaning Italian newspapers for millions of euros and denouncing "scoundrels" in the press.

Berlusconi says he wants to protect his image and that of his country, but to critics he just wants to gag the media. A recent press freedom rally in Rome drew tens of thousands of people, some holding signs saying "Now Sue Me, Too!"

What makes the issue especially sensitive in Italy is Berlusconi's concentration of media power. Through holding company Fininvest, Berlusconi and his family own the country's largest private broadcaster, Mediaset; the largest publishing house, Mondadori, which prints news weeklies and gossip magazines; and his brother owns the conservative paper Il Giornale.

As head of government, Berlusconi has indirect control over state broadcaster RAI. Together, RAI and Mediaset account for about 90 per cent of free channels in Italy.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. "Italy is a media democracy. Consensus is built through the media, especially TV, glossy magazines and low-brow newspapers, which belong to the person who runs this country," said Concita De Gregorio, the editor of L'Unita, one of the newspapers sued by Berlusconi.

"There's a power to intimidate, blackmail, threaten that acts sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly," she said.

The battle with the press is only one of the fronts Berlusconi has been fighting. Already dogged by a sex scandal over his encounters with young women, the premier faces two trials in Milan after an immunity law was overturned last month.

The premier sued L'Unita, as well as Repubblica, for articles related to the sex scandal, for about |4 million ($6.54m) combined, according to the papers. He informed reporters that his government would not answer questions over the scandal.

Berlusconi recently accused foreign journalists of besmirching his government and the whole of Italy. His minister for tourism announced an initiative aimed at monitoring the foreign press and "distributing positive information of our country".

Before an astounded Spanish premier, Berlusconi weeks ago attacked the respected Spanish newspaper El Pais, which has published risque photos of parties at the premier's villa. The premier has also accused Rupert Murdoch, once a business ally, of mounting a campaign against him after some articles in the Murdoch-owned London Times.

Reporters Without Borders has put Italy in 49th place - down five positions - in its annual ranking of media freedom, citing among other things Berlusconi's "harassment of the media".

[Former Military Chick]

One must give pause when you read this, then a good hardy laugh, I did not realize the strangle hold that he had on the Italian press, nor those I have talked to that keep up with current events.

This is stunning, and OH, just knowing there are "Reporter's Without Border's" should concern us all.

[K-oneTexas]

That’s one way to get elected.

[K-oneTexas]

He has held this position 3 times since 1995 (I believe). Must be a love/hate relationship. Whichever serves him best at the moment.

Plus having family in control always always will balance the scales ... in his favor.

Involved in (read owner) the media (print and tv), real estate, insurance, banking, sports teams a composer and a politician.

Well rounded individual indeed.

[GeronL]

they ain’t interest in freedom while they support the government

[GilGil]

You want to see where this will all lead?

View this video on Stalin. You won’t be able to take your eyes away.My wish would be that you would pass this on to others. As many as you can.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9118985704353138889#

[Former Military Chick]

I do love to read the foreign press, admittedly it is because my family resides abroad and my husband is deployed however I don't keep up with the Italian press, todays article is stunning, that the Italian press is owned by the very person you elected. It would be a college course I would sit in, this goes against what Americans hold true, well use to, that the free press was the watch dog, to be down the middle, to investigate, to report, let the chips fall, we in America have begun to lose sight of that.

Now, we only have to look at Italy as an example of a press that is no longer free.

I guess we should be thankful the Obama administration doesn't own MSNBC, it is almost more insidious that they don't.

Thank you for responding to my thread.~FMC