Italy protests against gag law

A number of Italian media are staging an information strike today, Friday, to protest a new anti-bugging law that among other things foresees draconian punishments for journalists who make public investigative files or recorded conversations. That the media are using silence to protest the dreaded gagging legislation may be paradoxical, but in view of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's "TV dictatorship" it is the only way to make themselves heard, wrote the left-liberal daily La Repubblica on Thursday: "The strike is the only way in an unhappy country that is the victim of an illegal television monopoly [Prime Minister Berlusconi owns the biggest private TV channel Mediaset and has influenced over public broadcaster RAI] to make TV viewers aware of what is going on in the network of power, judiciary, information and public opinion. The only way to break this loop. The investigating magistrates are to be hindered in the giving of evidence, the journalists are to be silenced and the citizens left in the dark. The devout TV news programmes don't talk about this. For the duration of one day the TV blackout will speak for them, and viewers will finally learn that there is a problem that affects them." 

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