30 May 2003 23:27 - INDEPENDENT

Editor 'sacked for irritating Berlusconi' Direttore licenziato per aver irritato Berlusconi

By Peter Popham in Rome

 

Il direttore del più importante quotidiano Italiano was expected di rassegnare le dimissioni la notte scorsa, l'evidente vittima dell'implacabile ricerca del Primo Ministro Silvio Berlusconini's di avere il controllo dei "news media" nazionali.

La notte scorsa un meeting del consiglio di amministrazione del Gruppo Editoriale RCS, la holdimng che possiede il Corriere della Sera, aveva preteso le dimissioni del direttore, Ferruccio De Bortoli, dopo che il quotidiano aveva ripetutamente irritato Mr Berlusconi.

Altri giornali Italiani hanno discusso sul suo allontanamento e la nomina al suo posto di Stefano Folli, a political columnist sympathetic to Mr Berlusconi, come una conclusione scontata. Though dressed up as a resignation, it was being described baldly as a sacking. The headline in Il Manifesto, an independent communist daily, put it like this: "Even the Corriere is his [Berlusconi's]."

Corriere della Sera is the giant of Italian daily newspapers, with daily sales of more than 700,000. Founded in 1876, it became the mouthpiece of Lombardy's rising middle class.

Today, with its slightly fusty, congested design, it is well to the right of La Repubblica, the liberal Rome daily. It is also the Italian newspaper with the best network of correspondents at home and abroad. It was long owned by the Agnelli family, who also owned Fiat, and Umberto Agnelli, Fiat's chairman, is still a director of its holding company. Its centrality in Italy's national life is comparable to that long enjoyed by Fiat.

But despite its conservatism, it has kept its distance from the Prime Minister. Its front-page cartoonist, Giannelli, depicts him as a grinning dwarf in shiny bowler hat and built-up shoes, and it has covered and commented on the Prime Minister's court cases. It is that coverage that has riled Mr Berlusconi, as well as its "irreverent" editorials. Two of the Prime Minister's lawyers are suing Mr De Bortoli over one editorial, alleging defamation.

The last straw, it is said, was a column on 15 May, in which Giovanni Sartori commented on a speech in which the Prime Minister said: "It will not be permitted for anyone who has been a communist to come to power." Mr Santori wrote: "Mussolini used to say the same words. He [Berlusconi] has no reason to be afraid. But I have."

Bruno Perini, in Il Manifesto, said: "The confrontation between the newspaper and the Prime Minister [is] ever harsher ... leading to the article ... in which he compared Silvio Berlusconi to Mussolini." Mr Perini cited "continuous pressure from Berlusconi's men to get [the paper] under control and stop it publishing irritating articles on the court cases."

There is speculation that Mr De Bortoli's ouster came after Mr Berlusconi told Mr Agnelli of his unhappiness with the newspaper. Fiat is in desperate financial trouble and, if a planned rescue by General Motors goes sour, may require a bail-out from Italian public funds to stay afloat.

The paper's journalists published a long statement in yesterday's paper, following a crowded and emotional meeting. They emphasised their "full trust" in Mr De Bortoli and demanded that "pressure and intimidation" should cease.

Mr Berlusconi owns three private television channels and indirectly controls RAI, the state broadcaster. A daily, L'Unita, and a political weekly, Panorama, are also his. A journalist on Corriere della Sera, unwilling to be named, said of Mr De Bortoli's sacking: "Now we really are just one step away from a dictatorship." Di nuovo questa storia de L'UNITA'?

Victims of censorship

Ferruccio De Bortoli, right, is only the latest editor to pay with his job for his courage. Ferruccio De Bortoli è solo l'ultimo giornalista a pagare con il suo lavoro per il suo coraggio.

Due redattori e un reporte di un influente quotidiano del Partito Comunista in Cina sono stati licenziati riguardo a un articolo che asseriva che una decina di studentesse universitarie in una provincia stavano lavorando anche come prostitute.

Ali Lmrabet, editor of two satirical Moroccan weeklies, was jailed last week for four years and fined for "insulting the king". He went on hunger strike in protest and is now in hospital.

Jamal Khashoggi, editor of Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan, was fired for criticising Muslim extremists. And in Belarus, two papers were banned yesterday for three months for planning articles about top leaders.