ITALY: Italian civil liberties groups and the centre-left opposition have expressed concern about new media legislation which could result in the Prime Minister extending his dominant influence in Italian television.
As owner of Mediaset, which controls three nationwide commercial channels, Mr Silvio Berlusconi already has a 45 per cent audience share while as Prime Minister, he exerts a not inconsiderable, if indirect, influence on the three TV channels of state broadcaster RAI.
Under the terms of the so- called Gasparri law, Mediaset will be entitled to buy another three TV channels as well as national newspapers while the Berlusconi family-run business will also be allowed to increase its advertising revenue by 50 per cent.
Furthermore, the legislation calls for the gradual privatisation of Mediaset's main market rival, RAI, while it also revokes the provisions of a 1997 law which ruled that Mediaset must transfer one of its three channels, Rete 4, from terrestrial to satellite broadcasting.
This week's legislation also appeared to increase political control over RAI by increasing the number of political appointees on the state broadcaster's board as well as requiring that the RAI president be voted into office by parliament's state TV commission.