Berlusconi advises journalists to change jobs

The Italian government wants to raise value added tax on Pay TV subscriptions from 10 to 20 percent. The major Italian newspapers have criticised the plan as the country's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is also owner of the media holding Mediaset. La Repubblica newspaper stresses the authoritarian tone with which Berlusconi forbids the Italian papers to criticise him. "Six years after Berlusconi's 'Bulgarian edict' against Santoro, Biagi and Luttazzi - journalists and satirists who were forced out of public television - follows the 'Albanian edict' against newspaper publishers. On returning from Tirana Berlusconi has provided yet another example of his view of what it means to be a liberal statesman. ... The threat 'change jobs' betrays more than just a colossal conflict of interests. ... The Cavaliere's words conceal a totalitarian vision of democracy which from one edict to the next is racing headlong into autocracy."

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