Silvio Berlusconi appeared on TG1, TG2, TG4, TG5 and Studio Aperto during prime time last Friday evening. Radicals complain to public prosecutor’s offices in Rome and Milan.
By a majority decision, the services and products committee of AGCOM, the communications watchdog authority, has imposed the maximum permitted fine of €258,230 on the TG1 and TG4 newscasts, since they are repeat offenders, and fines of €100,000 each on TG2, TG5 and Studio Aperto. The decision, taken “in the light of statements submitted”, for “the situation that obtained on the evening of Friday 20th May, when the broadcast of interviews with the prime minister by the TG1, TG2, TG5, TG4 and Studio Aperto newscasts took place in prime time”.
According to Corriere della Sera, practically all of Italy’s leading free-to-air news programmes, with the exceptions of TG3 and the La7 newscast, gave air-time to the People of Freedom (PDL) leader. Mr Berlusconi had been invited as the leader of his party for the administrative elections. Viewers saw him seated at a desk with the PDL logo clearly visible. However, this was not a media briefing. Each channel recorded its own interview and all of them went out at almost exactly the same time. The AGCOM fines, pointed out the watchdog’s chair Corrado Calabrò, ensued from “a strictly legal assessment and no political assessment”. Mr Calabrò added: “The committee carried out a technical and legal assessment of the situation. The infringement exists and the sanctions are a natural consequence”.
REGULATIONS BROKEN – A note from the watchdog says: “On 21st May, AGCOM requested urgent clarification from the broadcasters involved. In view of the comments received from RAI and Mediaset, the committee ruled that the interviews, all of which contained opinions and political evaluations of issues pertaining to the election campaign, and all of which were similar in terms of media exposure, constituted a violation of electoral regulations issued by the parliamentary watchdog committee and by AGCOM”. The committee’s decision was not unanimous. PDL senator Antonio Martusciello voted against the measure.
“DUTY OF BALANCE” – The AGCOM note continues: “The authority reaffirms that a duty of balance and completeness of information remains in force until the conclusion of the election campaign while second-round voting is under way”. Finally, the watchdog authority pointed out that “the ban on publishing survey results on voting intentions remains in force throughout Italy until completion of the second round of the administrative elections”.
REACTIONS – “Mediaset is astounded at the sanctions imposed by AGCOM today and will be appealing forthwith to the regional administrative court (TAR)”, said a Mediaset press release. “With this ruling, the authority is in effect preventing television broadcasters from performing their task of informing, and in doing so becomes party to the political exchange and not its arbiter, as the law intends”. Emilio Fede commented on the decision live on his evening newscast: “TG4 has violated absolutely nothing at all”. Augusto Minzolini, the director of TG1, said he was “appalled” and pointed out that the fines “involve all the newscasts that interviewed the prime minister but there was a story. He had said nothing for five days”. TG5 director Clemente Mimun thinks it is “totally absurd that interviewing the leader of the party of relative majority, and prime minister, for comment on the results of the first round of administrative elections should attract fines from a watchdog body. What has happened is of unprecedented seriousness. It presents as an act of grave intimidation, which of course will be ignored by the bodies representing Italian journalists. For our part, we will refuse to yield to interference or threats of any kind”.
RADICALS’ COMPLAINT – The incident may, however, have a sequel in court. During the morning, Emma Bonino and Marco Cappato submitted a formal complaint to the public prosecutor’s offices in Rome and Milan “against Berlusconi and the directors of the newscasts who on 20th May broadcast the sham interviews recorded by the president of the party of the People of Freedom”. The Radicals’ complaint highlights that “Berlusconi’s appearances on the newscasts are, by reason of the issues discussed, the electoral symbol behind the prime minister and the way the recording was edited, tantamount to electoral commercials of the kind strictly prohibited in news programmes”. The complaint points out that “if Berlusconi had by virtue of his position coerced or induced the directors of the TV newscasts to broadcast these commercials simultaneously, it would have been in no way different – in the structure of the conduct, the subjective quality of those involved and the obvious benefits accruing to the president of the party of the People of Freedom – from the abuse of power alleged against the prime minister by the public prosecutors in Milan when he contacted the chief of police by telephone to have Ruby handed over to regional counsellor Nicole Minetti, contrary to regulations. Should, however, the newscast directors have been fully aware and compliant, then there would be an evident offence of abuse of authority”.
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