Under pressure

Date: 07/06/03

A suspicious change of editor at Corriere della Sera

THE resignation of Ferruccio de Bortoli, editor of Corriere della Sera for the past six years, has made a big stink. The Milan-based newspaper is Italy's grandest and biggest daily, with sales of 700,000. It is serious, takes itself seriously, stands for the old establishment of business and the professions, and is the media's most independent voice. Its editor's departure has raised grave concerns about the control and ownership of Italy's media.

Mr de Bortoli had plainly been under strong pressure over the past two years from people in or close to the government of Silvio Berlusconi. He had, for instance, been served with libel writs from two of Mr Berlusconi's lawyers; and some of Corriere's reporters following the various criminal trials of the prime minister have been threatened with legal action.

The Corriere has been at odds with the government over Italy's economic management. It was sceptical of the government's support for the American-led war in Iraq. And it has one of Italy's sharpest cartoonists, Giannelli, who riles Mr Berlusconi with jokes on the front page.

But Mr Berlusconi has been most irritated by the newspaper's coverage of court hearings in Milan, where he is accused of bribing judges, and of a case in which Cesare Previti, an MP and close friend of the prime minister, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for a similar crime. Corriere's reporting of the cases has probably been the most comprehensive and balanced in the Italian media.

Italy has a sad record of journalists succumbing to pressure from politicians and officials. Quite a few of them are virtually bought by powerful interests; many find it hard to fend off the combination of temptation and bullying that the government has at its disposal, all of which makes Corriere's role all the more vital.

Mr Berlusconi is easily Italy's leading media magnate. He owns the three main private television channels and influences what is beamed by the three big state channels. His wife and brother own national daily newspapers. The biggest prize, among newspapers, would be Corriere della Sera. Mr Berlusconi has long itched to control it, should it become available.

The paper's biggest shareholder is Fiat, with 10.2%; the car maker's long-time boss, Gianni Agnelli, who died in January, was able virtually to appoint the editor. The second-biggest shareholder is Mediobanca, an influential bank, with 9.4%. A shareholder pact embraces this pair and half-a-dozen members of Italy's business elite. But Fiat's financial troubles, the demise of Mr Agnelli and upheavals at Mediobanca have given the impression that Corriere's ownership is unstable and that it could be vulnerable to a takeover.

The new editor, Stefano Folli, has been a respected columnist at Corriere for 12 years. He will try to maintain his predecessor's independence. The litmus test will be whether reports of criminal cases involving the prime minister and his friends remain comprehensive and trenchant.

There has been a change of editor at the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.