Berlusconi's character questioned

This blog is in response to Berlusconi's behavior with other world leaders in front of the press. While talking with group members today, one of them mentioned seeing him leave German Chancellor Angela Merkel standing when he arrived at the second day of the Nato summit on April 4th. He was there to take a photo with her, but arrived on the phone and left her standing for close to 15 minutes. While looking for something to blog about I came across the video, but not before also finding many other examples of him acting out in front of world leaders.

For instance, I found an article about him shouting to get President Obama's attention at a reception with world leaders at the G20 summit. It was rumored that his behavior offended the Queen of England. The article also mentioned that he was criticized for referring to Obama as "young, handsome and tanned" in November. Berlusconi defended his remark about Obama being "tan," saying that he ment it as a compliment, referring to a song about having to be tan to be attractive.

And also at last year's summit, he was filmed playing "hide and seek" with Chancellor Merkel, as he hid behind a large column when she walked past.

I think these are prime examples of the ways in which Berlusconi may be a powerful leader in Italy, but acts like a child in in front of the rest of the world. His character is definitely something to be questioned, as it seems many world leaders are not amused by his antics. How can anyone respect a leader when he proves his immaturity over and over again.

-Jessica Perry
Italy

A "Camping Weekend" for Italian Earthquake Victims

After an earthquake occurred in central Italy leaving over 250 dead, Prime Minister Berlusconi informed the thousands of citizens left homeless that they should view this as a "weekend of camping."

The natural disaster destroyed the town of L'Aquila. The 17,000 people left homeless were forced to "camp" outside in freezing cold temperatures and endure hail storms. However, Berlusconi told reporters for the channel on which the interview aired that those left homeless "lacked nothing" and were provided with medications, hot meals and shelter.

Of course, as could be expected, the interview did not air on the Italian television stations, but rather a German television station not correlated with the Berlusconi media empire. He made the comments as rescue workers searched for survivors from the powerful aftershocks.

-Jamie Bezozo
Italy

Response to "Party Leaders Merge, Berlusconi's Position Strengthened" post

This blog entry is in response to the entry Andrew posted earlier this week. After searching BBC.com for news articles on Berlusconi I came across this article from 2007 . The article was written after Berlusconi originally announced his plans to create the new party. He described the Italian People's Party for Freedom as a "protagonist of freedom and democracy for decades," and told supporters that the party would unite Italians "against the old fogeys of politics." He hoped that his coalition partners would join the party despite tension between them at the time.
Although Gianfranco Fini, leader of the National Alliance, has merged with Berlusconi, he was originally critical of the idea saying that Berlusconi's center-right coallition would collapse unless he changed his strategy.
A year and a half later Berlusconi's plans came together and the National Alliance Party and the Forza Italia party have officially merged to form the People of Freedom party, and as Andrew mentioned Berlusconi's position has been strengthened yet again.

Jessica Perry
Italy

National Alliance Merges with Berlusconi's Party

The National Alliance (AN) has agreed to fold their party into Berlusconi's 'People of Freedom.' The group consists of center-right conservatives. The National Alliance is the second largest force in the governing coalition.

The National Alliance has been an ally of the the Forza party (Berlusconi's) since the 1990s and ran with him under his winning election last year.

AN leader Gianfranco Fini has not always agreed with Berlusconi's views, however as for the merging of the parties, he seems agreeable as long as the AN continues to have their say in views. The AN consists of post-fascists which came together as the successor of the Italian Social Movement created by supporters of Mussolini after his death in 1945 and the fascist movement was outlawed.

-Jamie Bezozo
Italy

Italy: Loan Sharks to the Rescue

In trouble times like these, the only people who are not hurting are the mafia and loan sharks. Research says Italy's banks have limited their lending to small and medium- sized business, which result in more businesses in debt and bankruptcy.
In the Washington Post article, small business owners are falling victims to loan sharks because they are the only ones willing to lend money, but with a 120 percent annual interest. Organized crime becomes stronger within the economic crisis, which results in a weaker state say Gian Maria Fara, the president of Eurispes, a private research institute.

Banks are to blame for the increase in organized crimes. If the banks were more lenient people would not have to be associated with the mob for money lending purposes that result in outrageous paybacks.

-by Sun Kim

Opposition leader resigns strengthing Berlusconi's power

Silvio Berlusconi has gained an even stronger hand in Italy this week, following the resignation of the leader of opposition party. Walter Veltroni stepped down as leader of the Democratic party after he was defeated in local election for a government position. The victory was unexpected for Berlusconi, who hand picked the candidate that defeated Veltroni. Berlusconi defeated Veltroni in last years national election to win back his Prime Minister seat.

With no apparent leader of the opposition party, Berlusconi is unopposed. Local political analysts believe his reign will only get stronger with no one in his way to stop him. Berlusconi holds so much political power and holds large stakes in media corporations, giving him unparalleled control.

It may be a long time before there will be anyone to rise up and overthrow the power of Berlusconi.

Andrew Johnson
Italy

Italy: Berlusconi bribe case

David Mills, a British corporate lawyer has been found guilty of accepting bribes from Prime Minister Berlusconi in return for giving false evidence in two court cases in 1997 and 1998.

The article on BBC.com states that Mills, an expert witness in tax affairs, accepted $600,000 (U.S. dollars) to not mention Berlusconi's offshore companies in the court case so that Berlusconi could avoid paying tax. This was believed to have helped clear Berlusconi in the case.

Mills has been sentenced to four years and six months of prison, but has said he will appeal the sentencing. He will most likely avoid going to prison because an appeal could take up to 3 years, forcing the prosecution to run into problems with Italy's statute of limitations.

Berlusconi will also avoid prison time as his administration passed an immunity to prosecution law (a "get-out-of-jail-free card") last year. He cannot be prosecuted while in office, but the charges are suspended and there is a possibilty of prosecuting him once his term is over. There is also a movement to get rid of the new immunity laws which could lead to problems for Berlusconi.

-Jessica Perry
country: Italy

Italy: Prime Minister Berlusconi plans to restrict phone wiretaps

Skype has become the new form of communication for drug traffickers, organized crime, and prostitution rings. In the BBC news there was a report that investigators overheard suspects telling each other to switch over to Skype for further details of the plan.

It is difficult for investigators to get a hold of criminals these days because the police usually relied on wiretapping of home and mobile phones to catch their criminals. Police say they are not able to get any help from Skype because Skype is unwilling to reveal its encryption code with the police.

Phone wiretapping is necessary in order to catch criminals, but Prime Minister Berlusconi has come forth with a bill to restrict phone wire tapping to only serious crimes. The bill will not allow wiretap as evidence until the final verdict has been determined. Journalists are protesting this new bill because crime reporting comes from resources of wiretapping.

-Sun Kim (Italy)

Italy: Prime Minister Berlusconi Attempts to "Regulate Internet"

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wants to push for an agreement to regulate the internet through the G8.

The G8 is actually the Group of Eight, which is a forum for governments of eight nations from the north hemisphere, including Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.A. The group discusses issues of mutual or global concern, and it is through this that Berlusconi hopes to use his country's position in the G8 to push for international coercion on internet regulation.

The main issue at hand is that this is an inherent conflict of interest because Silvio Berlusconi is not only Italy's senior G8 leader, the Prime Minister and Italy's richest man, but also the main controller of Italy's media, owning (both directly and indirectly) 90% of Italian media.

According to La Stampa, attempts at internet regulation will be protested by bloggers who will display anti-Berlusconi banners on their blogs and websites. Berlusconi's attempts to get other countries to follow in internet regulation are a direct violation of the protection of freedom of speech, as well as various other press freedom indices.

- Jamie Bezozo
Country: Italy

Italy: Berlusconi approves stimulus package for car sales

According to the article, the Italian government Friday approved a stimulus worth more than 2 billion euros (2.5 billion) to help Italian citizens purchase durable goods and other necessities, but the main emphasis is on buying new cars and trucks.

The car industry has registered a large drop in sales compared to last year; with Italy's largest private employer and car factory Fiat placing workers on forced leave and reduced pay.

Berlusconi approved the stimulus package, saying it was designed to provide consumers an incentive of 1,500 euros (1,930) enabling them to exchange older car models for new ones. The consumers car must be at least 10 years old. Italy is the latest nation, following behind Germany, Britain and France, to help slumping car sales in the market according to The Annotico Report.

The car industry in Italy accounts for 11.4 pecent of the country's gross domestic product, employing over 1 million workers. Berlusconi hopes the stimulus package will help the government rebound.

Italians Celebrate Obama Victory

Amid the media blitz regarding Italian prime minister Berlusconi, the Italian public along with Americans celebrate the victory of Barack Obama in the presidential race. It is very interesting to me that in a country that has an extraordinarily corrupt political system that our goverment would get such publicity. I understand that America is seen as a world power and despite recent years is still highly respected. After living in Italy for 5 months I have come to realize that Italians look to the American democratic system in hope. In the recent years under the umbrella of Berlusconi, Italians have had a grim view of democracy. Obama, in the eyes of the Italians, offers as much hope for change for Americans as he does for them. Although it is clear in this video that the American people living in Italy, in this case Rome, are leading this celebration it is also very obvious that the Italians are just as much involved. The parade of people are moving down a very highly populated area in Rome and this just proves that Obama is accepted as a figure head, already, in this country.

Tricia Mastuzo

Italian Media Jacking Movement

This video explores the Italian Media Jacking Movement, Italy's Telestreet phenomena. It used a network of around 200 micro pirate TV transmitters to counter the media monopoly that Berlusconi held.
The documentary has activists from TeleAut and SpegnilaTV and famous media theorist Franco Berardi.

Mediaset back at it

Berlusconi's company wants more money. Mediaset is suing Youtube for copyright infringement of over 325 hours of clips. Although Youtube does not have the following in Italy that it does in America, it is fast getting there. The giant that is Youtube has many rules and stipulations in place that prohibit a user from posting copyrighted material. However, it is common for compyrighted videos to slip through. Mediaset, and therefore Berlusconi are trying to have more of a hold over the news they spew. Check it out!

Tricia Masturzo

Comic blogs about Mediaset

Although a very short article I found it very interesting and revealing about Italian media systems. Obviously I was attracted at first due to the title about Mediaset, the overpowering media system run by former prime minister Berulsconi. In this article is goes on to say that a Genovese comic goes on to mock Berlusconi"s position in office and the position he hold in the media business. He mentions that if the company was taken over then "real journalists" could take over. This is an obvious jab at the political programs in the country, the programs that feature "journalists" who are either so one-sided no real news get told or they are more like actors.

The other reason I found this article interesting was because the comic posted all of this on a BLOG. This blog post made front page news in the Corrierre della Sera, an English Italian newspaper. I Found this very interesting because with blogging being a relatively new phenomenon it is amazing that this story could generate that much interest.


Tricia Masturzo

Italy: BERLUSCONI LAUNCHES ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE

This article has been published on Octoebr, 9th. It is about the issu that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday launched a drive to stamp out corruption in the civil service.The premier said Italy had a longstanding problem with corruption among civil servants, partly because of the size of its state administration. There is a price to be paid for a sprawling, bureaucratic and bloated public administration like them, unveiling a new anti-corruption task force.''Corruption has age-old roots and has taken on a pathological and endemic form which cannot be tolerated and which we aim to root out,'' the premier told a news conference with Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta. Berlusconi said the government's new Anti-Corruption and Transparency Service would aim, among other things, to ''effectively map out corruptions risks and carry out an in-depth probe into European Union funds''.He said the task force would have an ''intelligence-gathering rather than policing role'' and would save millions of euros in taxpayers' money. It would seek to produce ''a modernised, digitalised and transparent public administration,'' he said.Berlusconi said he was familiar with the problems of administrative corruption because of his early experiences as a young construction entrepreneur in Milan.He said he had to stop building in Milan ''because you couldn't build anything (there) unless you went (to officials) with a cheque in your mouth''.'This, fortunately, occurred many years ago. Berlusconi is relying on Brunetta to push through the kinds of reforms which have been announced by successive governments only to make little impact.The feisty minister has already hit headlines for a campaign against ''slackers''.Last week statistics were released showing that sick days were sharply down following Brunetta's move to cut pay for suspected malingerers.Brunetta said the rate of absenteeism had been cut by 45% and ''by the end of the year we will effectively have 50,000 more workers'' without new hirings.As part of the drive, Brunetta said turnstiles like those at soccer stadiums would be installed at his ministry to show when staff entered and left their offices.Berlusconi quipped that news of the move had already produced a visible result. I found this should be important issue for Italian media system. As the Italy media system has been under control of the premier Silvio Berlusconi, this issue is one of pictures that we could look the Italian media is still manipulated even including launiching campaign.

Hye Jin Chung

Italy: Berlusconi Says Markets May Be Shut

Oct. 10: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi claimed that the US government may shut down the financial markets due to the credit freeze and the falling of the stock market. He claimed that it may be shut down while the rules of international policies are rewritten. This was revealed at a g7 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers. Later that day Berlusconi reveresed the comments he had made in Napels about the US shutting down the markets. White House Spokesman Tony Fratto said, "There are absolutely no plans or discussions to interfere with the functioning of markets in the United States."

Andrew Edelman

GROUP ITALY - Italy's La 7 plans major reorganization

The artile is about that Telecom Italia Media expects net to grow from 2009-11.
Telecom Italia Media expressed that it plans to significantly reorganize subsidiary La 7, the smallest of Italy's national television networks, just days after announcing a major round of layoffs at the broadcaster.TI Media, the media unit owned by former state telephone monopoly Telecom Italia, said that, despite La 7's struggles, it expects profits to rise by at least 7% per year for the three-year period ending in 2011, with most of the profits coming from its multimedia and content production divisions.The company said it expects to be one of Italy's leaders in the switch to digital television frequencies before 2010, and that its budget for acquiring new programming will remain flat at 90 million euros ($133 million) through 2011.The company did not go into detail about the reorganization at La 7 -- the only national terrestrial broadcaster not owned by Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset or state broadcaster RAI -- but did say that it expects La 7 to grow from its current 3.2% market share during the 2009-11 period.The comments were released Tuesday, after the late Monday meeting of TI Media's board of directors.

Italian Politics and TV

As we near the 2008 presidential election in America we are constantly inundated with updates, commercials and media blasts regarding our candidates. It occurs every four years that we experience the overwhelming task of deciphering the good, the bad and the ugly. However, this is not the case in other countries, especially Italy. In Italy, it is a regular occurrence for politicians to maintain a steady position in the media no matter what time of the year. Attendance on talk shows and newscasts is common and expected. The big difference is that the political oppositions rarely, if ever, appear together to debate with one another. Thus, the viewing public get a skewed version of the truth. The politicians are never countered or attacked by an opposing view and they can avoid questions about topics that would be embarrassing or incriminating. This type of non-confrontational approach to politics would never hold up in the U.S. Our media systems are reliant on the truth and being able to question what has been said or done. This video explains just how different the way politics is played out in American and Italian media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n6wxVZ4G40

In Italy, female editor signals women's rise

by Ashley Rosenstein

Women journalists are setting a precedent for Italian women in the workplace. But low female employment remains a problem.

When Concita de Gregorio became the editor in chief of L'Unità, a national newspaper, she said she wanted to focus on politics and daily news: "We have had enough commentary, now we need facts," she wrote in her first editorial on Aug. 26

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0916/p07s02-woeu.html

I'm suprised by the fact that Italians are so against having a woman in this type of position. I hadn't realized how split the sexes still were in Italy, and never expected such protests in this type of situation. One journalist even responded by saying "I bet now we'll see many easy recipes for working mothers and advice [in the paper] on how to behave like prostitutes when [their] husbands come home."

I also found out that Italy ranks second-lowest among Western European countries, followed by Portugal, in women's rights and social status issues.
The article also stated that "Gregorio's editorship is part of a wider trend of Italian women succeeding in the national media. In 2000, Flavia Perina became the first female editor of the far-right daily Il Secolo d'Italia, and in 2002, Daniela Hamaui became the first woman to head L'Espresso, an investigative news magazine."

Defamation Suit by Italian Premier Is Rejected

by Ashley Rosenstein

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lost a defamation suit against the magazine The Economist over a 2001 cover story that accused him of being unfit to lead Italy, the magazine said on Friday.
A court in Milan, after rejecting the libel claims of Mr. Berlusconi, one of Italy’s richest men, ordered him to pay the magazine about $35,000 for legal costs.
The April 26, 2001, issue of The Economist featured a front-page photo of Mr. Berlusconi with the headline “Why Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy.” The accompanying article accused him of conflicts of interest, analyzed his business empire and detailed legal battles in which he was involved. The issue appeared right before parliamentary elections, which Mr. Berlusconi won.
The Economist’s article, Judge Angelo Ricciardi wrote in his decision, was completely “within the right to criticize, which is guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.”
...
Just before he narrowly lost a bid for re-election in 2006, the magazine published a cover story headlined “Basta, Berlusconi” (“Enough, Berlusconi”).
In July of this year, The Economist accused Mr. Berlusconi of using his third term as prime minister largely to pursue what it called his “personal and corporate interests.” That article had the headline “Berlusconi fiddles, Italy burns,” was accompanied by a caricature of him looking like the Roman emperor Nero, and said, “There is no hint of debate on the liberalizing measures that Italy’s hidebound economy badly needs.”


I think that this article is very interesting because it discusses the Prime Minister losing a defamation lawsuit that most people would expect him to win. As someone so high up in the economic chain, Berlusconi was expected to win this case. This article helped me find out about the Italian constitution when it said "was completely 'within the right to criticize, which is guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.'" Article 21, as I found on another website, states that: "everybody has the right to freely express his own thought through words, writing, and any other means...";