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September 09, 2006
Freedom of the Press under Prodi
The word ‘regime’ was bandied about repeatedly while Berlusconi’s government was in power. General opinion, at least on the left, was that freedom of the press was dangerously compromised by Berlusconi’s own media ownership and through various bits of broadcasting legislation pushed through by his government.
So, a breath of liberty and fresh air for Italian journalists under the Prodi government? Heavy-handed raids on three newspapers in the Trento region might give pause for thought. The papers in question, l’adige,il Trentino, and il Corriere del Trentino had their mail servers seized by police, in an operation “worthy of an operation against a gang of drug dealers” according to l’Adige’s editor Paolo Ghezzi.
And why? Because each of the three papers published leaked transcripts from taped telephone conversations relating to an ongoing investigation concerning the activities of Giorgio Casagranda, the local head of the Margherita party – one of the main coalition partners in Prodi’s government.
It’ll be interesting to see how Freedom House rank Italy’s media freedom in next year’s annual report.
Posted by 3Monkeys at
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