Silvio Berlusconi has been placed under investigation by Italian magistrates on suspicion of pressuring Italy's media watchdog to block transmission of a state television talk show he considered hostile, it was reported on Monday.
The announcement, by the news service Ansa, came as figures released by the Italian parliament revealed that the prime minister's income, partly derived from private TV channels, had shot up to €23m (£21m) last year from €14.5m in 2008.
The investigation was prompted by wiretaps, which allegedly reveal Berlusconi urging Giancarlo Innocenzi, a senior member of a parliament-appointed watchdog, to "shut down" the show, Annozero, broadcast on Italy's state RAI network.
Transcripts reveal Berlusconi phoning Innocenzi in November as the show discussed an inquiry into the alleged mafia ties of a member of his government. "It's obscene," Berlusconi is reported as saying. "Now you need to make a concerted effort to push RAI to say enough, we're shutting everything down." In other calls, Berlusconi reportedly attacks other shows he considers unbalanced, telling Innocenzi: "If you had the slightest bit of dignity, you would resign."
RAI has suspended all political talk shows, including Annozero, before the regional elections this month, ostensibly to guarantee balance.
Innocenzi, a former journalist at Berlusconi's Mediaset network, is under investigation for denying to magistrates that he was pressured by Berlusconi.
Magistrates also recorded conversations between Berlusconi and the head of RAI's flagship news programme, Augusto Minzolini, who has been criticised for defending Berlusconi on air.
Berlusconi claimed the accusations were "ridiculous and grotesque," adding that his opposition to shows he considered one-sided was "not only legitimate but necessary." In 2002 Berlusconi accused journalist Michele Santoro of making "criminal use" of television, after which the presenter disappeared from schedules for four years.
After the leaked wiretaps were published on Friday, the justice minister, Angelino Alfano, said he would send inspectors to quiz the magistrates handling the inquiry to discover if they were justified in bugging the prime minister, and how the transcripts were leaked.
Berlusconi has long claimed he is being victimised by a minority of Italian magistrates. "It is not surprising that this challenge comes a few days before the elections, accompanied by continual leaks," said Niccolo Ghedini, Berlusconi's lawyer, on Monday. "But there has to be a limit to the judicial fantasies of magistrates," he added.
Berlusconi is currently on trial for bribing a British lawyer, David Mills, and for tax fraud, although a law on "legitimate impediment" passed last week allows him to suspend the trials for 18 months to allow him to govern. The measure follows the rejection last year by Italy's constitutional court of a law giving Berlusconi immunity from criminal prosecution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/16/silvio-berlusconi-magistrates-phone-tap
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