Italy media boss quits in protest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3683843.stm

The chairwoman of the Italian public broadcaster, Rai, has resigned.

Ms Annunziata said she was stepping down in protest at appointments to the company board that she said amounted to an "occupation".
...
Opponents of the media law passed last Friday - after an earlier rejection by the country's president - say it cements Mr Berlusconi's control over 90% of television and allows him to acquire more newspapers and radio stations.

An independent media watchdog, the Osservatorio di Pavia, found that Mr Berlusconi's presence on television in February accounted for 42% of news time dedicated to politicians.

Seems like they are crawling out of the cracks,...all over the place.

All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men and women to remain silent.

The next person who ever says "don't overreact" "it's not that bad" needs to be publically shamed and ridiculed.

Enough with appeasing the fascists

Survey finds global decline in press freedom; Italy cited

Freedom of the press declined substantially around the world in 2003, including a worrisome drop in Italy, according to a survey released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit group.

SNIP

It said Italy had slipped from free to partly free because of the influence of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose media holdings include Italy's three largest private television stations.

"Berlusconi has been able to exert influence over the public broadcaster RAI," said Karin Deutch Karlekar, the survey's managing editor. "This further exacerbates an already worrisome media environment characterized by unbalanced coverage within Berlusconi's enormous media empire."

SNIP

Freedom House is a nonprofit organization with offices around the world that aims to promote democratic values such as human rights, free markets and an independent media. It is partly funded by the U.S. government and supports U.S. involvement in global affairs.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/04/28/national2042EDT0850.DTL

They may be right about Italy, but I think they are disreputable.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8247

"European Union gets good rankings, except Italy and Spain: Italy received a poor ranking (53rd) compared with the other European Union countries for the second year running. Silvio Berlusconi's conflict of interests as head of government and owner of a media empire is still unresolved. Furthermore, a draft law to reform radio and TV broadcasting, tailored to Berlusconi's interests, is likely to increase the threats to news diversity in Italy."

Also note:
"Special situation of the United States and Israel: The ranking distinguishes behaviour at home and abroad in the cases of the United States and Israel. They are ranked in 31st and 44th positions respectively as regards respect for freedom of expression on their own territory, but they fall to the 135th and 146th positions as regards behaviour beyond their borders.

The Israeli army's repeated abuses against journalists in the occupied territories and the US army's responsibility in the death of several reporters during the war in Iraq constitute unacceptable behaviour by two nations that never stop stressing their commitment to freedom of expression."

Italy is the birthplace of fascism though.