Italy’s new laws: A good week for Berlusconi

Date: 26/07/03

One law on conflicts of interest, another on the media, and both to his taste

IT REALLY was a splendid week for Silvio Berlusconi. He was welcomed with open arms to George Bush's ranch in Texas. Back home, lawmakers approved two bills that will let him claim his government has tackled the interlinked problems of media concentration and the conflict between his roles as head of Italy's government and owner of its biggest commercial television network. Finally, two lawyers, Ilda Boccassini and Gherardo Colombo, who had prosecuted him for allegedly bribing judges before he came into politics, were put under investigation and now risk being put on trial themselves. No wonder the famous grin was even wider than usual.

The bill on conflicts of interest went through the lower house on July 22nd, then at once back to the Senate, which had already approved it, for a technical amendment. It will be there some time, but so ends a long search for a formula that would protect Mr Berlusconi's legitimate financial interests while ensuring that they did not interfere with his running of the country. And the search, which began in 1994, during his first government, has ended badly.

The bill contains fine-sounding words: high government officials must devote themselves “exclusively to the care of public interests”. But the devil is in the detail. Holders of high office may own, but not run, companies. Given that Mr Berlusconi withdrew in the mid-1990s from the day-to-day management of his empire, he can carry on as before. And what if, perish the thought, he does, as prime minister, take some decision that unfairly favours his interests? This bill would impose no penalty on him. It tells Italy's antitrust watchdogs to keep an eye out, but if they detect wrongdoing all they can do is report it to parliament - where, at present, Mr Berlusconi's friends are solidly in the majority.

On the very day the lower house was approving this toothless measure, the upper house was passing a communications bill that could scarcely demonstrate better the need for something more stringent.

Mr Berlusconi controls all three of Italy's biggest privately owned channels. As head of government he can also influence the output of RAI, the state-owned broadcasting body, which also has three. The risks in that were made plain this month when RAI's main evening news bulletin failed to show the notorious incident when Mr Berlusconi insulted a German member of the European Parliament.

To his followers, the communications bill is a big step towards greater competition and diversity. It opens the way for the implantation of digital terrestrial television in Italy from 2006; and that, they say, will push up the number of channels and correspondingly diminish Mr Berlusconi's grip on what Italians can watch.

Maybe, but other clauses in the bill risk so enhancing the power of his media empire in the meantime that such considerations will be irrelevant. The bill drives a coach and horses through a ruling by Italy's highest court that Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset group should transfer one of its channels to satellite. It will boost TV revenues by allowing more sponsored promotions, in which presenters interrupt their work to exalt the merits of anything from garden furniture to patent laxatives. It replaces today's 20% limit on the percentage of total TV advertising (and similar) revenues that any one TV group can earn, with a 20% limit over all media for any one media group.

Press proprietors say all this will eat further into their advertising earnings and make their newspapers, many critical of Mr Berlusconi, vulnerable to takeover. And lo, another provision in the bill frees even multi-channel TV companies - if only, thanks to a late amendment, from end-2008 - to buy up newspapers.

One law on conflicts of interest, another on the media - and both to the Italian PM's taste.