By IPS Correspondents
NEW YORK, Sep 23 2009 (IPS)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the world’s most powerful media moguls, is being increasingly accused of using his six news organisations and television channels to manipulate the country’s political life and public opinion.

His critics, both inside and outside the country, point out that the controversial head of government believes that the power of the media – and TV in particular – is crucial to ensure his political survival.

In Italy, his electors are daily fed by the three channels of Berlusconi’s own (Mediaset) and by the other three he controls as head of parliament (RAI). But attention isn’t limited to his nation’s borders.

“Italians in the United States seem to follow developments of Mr. Berlusconi’s private and public life with great interest,” Giampaolo Pioli, Italian correspondent for the newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale and president of the U.N. Correspondents Association, told IPS.

Pioli said that in the U.S. ”the attention was at its highest when (U.S. President) Barack Obama was in Italy for the G8 summit meeting and visited the area hit by last April’s earthquake.

”There was a lot of curiosity about Obama’s behaviour towards our premier, a doubt that he may try to keep a distance,” he said.

“There is a big interest among Italian people, especially the ones born in Italy, regarding Italian politics – interest that grows during election times, “Andrea Mantineo, editor of America Oggi, told IPS.

These Italians have different media to consult: local Italian newspapers (like America Oggi), U.S. newspapers and television, besides the internet.

This summer, a newly controversial phase begun for Berlusconi – first, a sexual scandal, with audio tapes sold to some international newspapers by an escort (Patrizia D’Addario) allegedly recording her meetings with him. This was followed by revelations of his “relationship” with an underage girl, Noemi Letizia, and the consequent divorce from his wife.

There have also been rumours of a possible relationship with the Italian Mafia – from whom some suspect he received money to start his career as an entrepreneur three decades ago – which he never really clarified.

In September, Dino Boffo, editor of the Avvenire – the Italian bishops’ association’s newspaper – resigned from his job because another Italian newspaper, Il Giornale (owned by Berlusconi), had launched a nasty campaign against the editor claiming that he was a homosexual who had stalked the wife of a man he had an affair with years ago.

Avvenire had strongly criticised the Italian premier’s behaviour, calling it “inappropriate”.

“The information Italians can get here is freer and more independent for sure compared to the [media] in Italy. Unfortunately there is a bad side too, because the U.S. media don’t seem to be interested in covering facts unless there is a big scandal, and Italian people living here usually complain about it by sending us a lot of feedback,” Mantineo said.

During the last several weeks, Berlusconi sued two Italian newspapers – La Repubblica (the most hostile newspaper in Italy towards him) and L’Unità (the one historically more linked to the radical left wing of the Parliament) – over their critical reporting of him, both publicly and personally.

La Repubblica is collecting signatures for a petition to confirm support for freedom of the press. Launched by three jurists – Franco Cordero, Stefano Rodotà and Gustavo Zagrebelsky – the list has been joined by personalities from all over the world.

“Italian people living in New York don’t feel represented by Italian politicians at all,” Dr. Paolo Catalfamo from the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), told IPS, “As well as the Italians in Italy, they feel embarrassed by their politicians.”

Berlusconi was in Libya in August to celebrate the first “Italy and Libya Friendship Day”, just two days before Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s 40th anniversary as Libyan leader (for which no western leader showed up, including Berlusconi).

Italy’s premier is becoming every day more controversial and the international media are amplifying this on a daily basis.

“Italian people here in the U.S. care about it because his continuing scandals are giving Italy a black eye,” Dona Desanctis from the foundation Sons of Italy told IPS. “They care a great deal about Italy’s image on the world stage.”

La Repubblica now publishes a special daily press review listing all the main headlines of the international media referencing Berlusconi on its website.

A new documentary titled “Videocracy” explores the power of television in Italy, and specifically Berlusconi’s personal use of it during the last 30 years. The three channels of RAI – the national TV – didn’t air the trailers or promote it because, as openly noted in the official statement, “It is too much critical towards the Italian government”.

In the documentary, the director Erik Gandini claims that 80 percent of Italian people rely on television to stay informed.

“In a ‘videocracy’, image is the key to the power,” he says. “In Italy, one man has dominated the world of images for more than three decades. As a tycoon in the first place and then as head of the Parliament, Silvio Berlusconi made a perfect combination of political power and entertainment in order to influence public opinion.”

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