Thousands Defend Role of Press in Italy

[bemildred]

Source: NYT

ROME — Tens of thousands of protesters thronged to a historic square in one of Europe’s largest capitals on Saturday to defend press freedom amid concerns of growing government interference in how the news is reported in Italy.

“Free information, not on a leash,” Franco Siddi, the secretary general of the Italian Press Federation, told a crowd in the Piazza del Popolo that organizers estimated to be at least 300,000 strong. Police officials said the number was closer to 60,000.

The group planned the Rome event “after a crescendo of episodes” suggested that the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was trying to exert pressure on the national news media, Mr. Siddi said later backstage.

On Friday, Mr. Berlusconi dismissed the protest as “a real farce.” Speaking at a political convention in northern Italy, he said, “Freedom is far greater in Italy than any other Western country,” the news agency ANSA reported.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/world/europe/04italy.html

[Vidar]

1. Good for the Italians. Fuck Berlusconi.

[happygoluckytoyou]

2. in a related story Billini O'Riellnio of VOLPE news asks viewers to not look behind the curtain

[Canuckistanian]

3. Berlusconi is a thug

AND he OWNS most of the media in Italy. A dangerous combination.

Imagine Rupert Murdoch being elected president. That's how bad it is.

I'm surprised there haven't been protests earlier.

[Selatius]

4. Berlusconi owns most of the news outlets in Italy. He's a news oligarch.

If he is trying to control how the news outlets report information, I speculate he is doing so in order to curb news outlets he does not already control.

[New Dawn]

5. Fuck Berlusconi.