Word: berlusconi
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...measures, which are unprecedented among Western democracies, are expected to get final Cabinet approval on Feb. 4 unless opposition parties are able to block them in court. For Berlusconi, this isn't so much an attempt at new media control as it is part of an old story line. The billionaire Prime Minister just happens to own the country's only major private television network, which critics say is a conflict of interest much more troubling for the country than any of his private dalliances or verbal faux pas. (See pictures about Silvio Berlusconi and the politics...
...Berlusconi's so-called mediocracy works in two ways. Critics claim that his Mediaset network slants its TV news coverage to favor Berlusconi's political fortunes. At the same time, his parliamentary allies are accused of using the levers of government to give a boost to the gran capo's business interests (which also include publishing, real estate and financial holdings beyond the core television company). Indeed, critics say that Mediaset has relied on favorable legislation in its recent efforts to undercut the Sky Italia satellite TV network set up by Berlusconi's rival, Rupert Murdoch. (Read "Berlusconi vs. Murdoch...
...Internet restrictions, opponents say, are yet another attempt by Berlusconi's party to protect Mediaset's bottom line in the age of online video sharing. "This decree is an enormous gift to Mediaset," says Paolo Gentiloni, a former Communications Minister who is now the opposition's point man on media policy. "We suspect that this maneuver is aimed at slowing the growth of the web's video offerings by a government that has a personal interest in supporting private TV." Dario Denni, head of the Italian Association of Internet Providers, used this analogy to describe the new rule...
...Berlusconi's allies insist that they are simply responding to a 2007 European Union directive that requires individual countries to set up new media regulations. "The decree does not intend to censor the right to information online, nor to limit the possibility of expressing your ideas and opinions via blogs and social networks," Italy's Vice Minister of Communications, Paolo Romani, said in a statement...
...perceives as unfettered web activity. Prosecutors have leveled criminal charges against four Google executives because a video depicting an ugly episode of school bullying remained on YouTube for several hours in 2006 before it was removed. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni also asked Facebook to shut down two anti-Berlusconi fan pages in recent months - one entitled "Let's Kill Berlusconi" and another set up to praise the mentally ill man who attacked the Prime Minister in Milan in December. In addition, there have been other bills under both the Berlusconi coalition and the former center-left government aimed at regulating...