| President Ciampi offended Prime Minister Berlusconi The President of Italy dealt a sensitive blow to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - both as head of government and as a media mogul. Yesterday, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, under pressure from the opposition, returned to parliament the “Gasparri law” on reforming the Italian media system, which had already been passed by both houses in early December. After the refusal to sign the law, the share price of Berlusconi's company Mediaset immediately fell by 2.5%.
According to the developer of the law, Italian Minister of Communications Maurizio Gasparri, it should help Italian media companies withstand international competition. Gasparri said yesterday that only respect for the President of the Republic does not allow him to say out loud what he thinks about returning the law to parliament. According to the opposition and trade unions, the new law violates the principle of fair competition, threatens freedom of speech and was adopted to please Prime Minister Berlusconi. The head of the left-wing Democratic faction in the Senate, Gavino Anjusa, sounded the alarm at the beginning of December and warned that “the law will destroy media pluralism and attack the interests of society, preferring the interests of the owner of Mediaset to them.”
Berlusconi's empire already covers 95% of Italian television broadcasting today, and the post of prime minister allows him to secretly control the public television network RAI. Had President Ciampi signed this law, the court verdict obliging Berlusconi to abandon one of his three television channels by January 1, 2004 would have been annulled. And by 2009, Berlusconi would be able to legally own print and electronic media simultaneously. According to experts, Gasparri's law would bring Berlusconi, as a media tycoon, an additional $900 million.
Center-left Paolo Gentiloni said: “We have been fighting for 15 months against this unconstitutional law, which is contrary to European law. We are pleased that the president did not sign it.” And the International Press Institute in Vienna noted that “media concentration in Italy is worsening the quality of democracy in Europe as a whole.” After the law was returned to parliament, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Freimut Duve noted with satisfaction that “Italy has returned to the traditional European culture of media independence from direct government interference.”
Few people believed in the opposition's victory over the prime minister. The president, who in a parliamentary republic does not have much power, very rarely opposes the will of the Italian government. At the same time, it was thanks to the president that Mr. Berlusconi was able to combine civil service with business and even receive immunity from prosecution during his premiership.
But no one has ever defeated Silvio Berlusconi, at least not without a fight. “There is no offense here either towards me or towards the government,” the prime minister said. “The head of state spoke, everything is fine. Parliament can change the law in accordance with his instructions, or it can approve it again, leaving everything as it is.” According to the Italian constitution, if Berlusconi's supporters in parliament re-adopt the law rejected by the president, then the president's signature will no longer mean anything. Katerina LABETSKAYA, Valentina KULIABINA |
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