Italian TV laws change and benefit Berlusconi : Simon Perry: Schemes, dreams & trivia

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Italian TV laws change and benefit Berlusconi

3rd December 2003 by Simon

Scary moves in Italy.

A law has been passed in Italy that changes rules of ownership of media. It has many potential benefits for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He currently controls 3 of the 7 commercial television stations as well as having power over the rest of the state owned media.

One provision of the bill is to reverse a court ruling that Mr Berlusconi’s Mediaset company must sell off one of its three TV stations by 1 January.

In addition, Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri said on Tuesday that the law would give Mediaset and publisher Mondadori access to extra revenues of �500 million.

The new law will also enable the partial privatisation of some of the state media.

All done under the guise of modernising broadcast media and ushering in digital TV.

Listen to members of the Italian public being interviewed on the BBC, I was amazed to hear that they didn’t think there was anything dodgy about this.

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