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| NO POLITICIAN likes a critical press and Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, is no exception. In recent weeks he has come in for close scrutiny by foreign journalists, and what they have written has not made pleasant reading. Yet the knocks to his standing are partly of his own making. Questions hang over his relations with young women and with David Mills, a British lawyer paid by him and recently convicted of giving false evidence in his favour (Mr Mills is appealing). Mr Berlusconi tried to stop publication of photographs of guests at his Sardinian villa. He said that this would be an invasion of privacy, but the foreign media see it is part of a pattern that betrays a dislike of a free press.
Mr Berlusconi believes that the best form of defence is attack. Last month his foreign minister called a critical leading article in the Financial Times, a British business newspaper (and part-owner of The Economist), bad and dishonest journalism. Early this month Mr Berlusconi himself accused the foreign press of being at the service of the centre-left opposition. He has attacked newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch, especially the Times, for their recent highly critical coverage. Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by Mr Berlusconi’s brother, has described the work of the foreign press as poison and lies, pointing especially at publications based in Britain, France, Germany and Spain.
Some Italian ambassadors have been putting pressure on media hostile to Mr Berlusconi. The Italian ambassador in Madrid wrote to the newspaper El País to complain of a “systematic campaign of demolition of Italy’s image”. A foreign journalist in Rome was recently summoned to the foreign ministry. Mr Berlusconi’s staff have tried to get one foreign ambassador to bring journalists from his country into line. Yet Mr Berlusconi and his supporters refuse to engage directly with critics. Foreign correspondents complain that it is often impossible to secure interviews with any ministers in the government.
Some journalists believe their telephones are tapped. And the threat of legal action is constant. Mr Berlusconi’s lawyer is bringing an action against El País because it published the Sardinian photographs. Until Mr Berlusconi came along, Italian prime ministers tended not to sue newspapers. Mr Berlusconi sues plenty (including The Economist). He has all the power that comes from great personal wealth, extensive media and publishing interests and control over commercial television, as well as influence on state-owned broadcasting. On June 13th he issued a call to Italian businessmen (later withdrawn) not to place advertising with critical domestic publications.
The prime minister also has a habit of not answering questions. In 2002 he refused to help prosecutors in an anti-Mafia case. More than 50 questions that The Economist first sent him in April 2001 remain unanswered. Recently Mr Berlusconi failed to respond to ten questions put by La Repubblica over his relationship with a young woman, Noemi Letizia.
As he prepares to chair a summit of G8 rich countries in L’Aquila, Mr Berlusconi might want to consider the effect that his attacks on the foreign press have both on his image and on that of his country.
da "the Economist" jun 18th 2009
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