Berlusconi threatens to prosecute his hecklers

[YogsVR4]

Somethings grinding on the European leadership these days.


http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentSe...=1051390021719

Freedom of expression emerged on Wednesday as a new battleground between Silvio Berlusconi and his political opponents after the Italian prime minister said he would prosecute people who insult the dignity of his office.

Opposition politicians and commentators expressed alarm at Mr Berlusconi's warning. Furio Colombo, the editor of L'Unità, a leftwing daily, described it as a violation of article 21 of the Italian constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.

However, Mr Berlusconi's supporters said his aim was not to curb civil liberties but to emphasise the need for dignified behaviour in public life and to calm the increasingly unpleasant tone of Italian politics over recent weeks.

Mr Berlusconi aired the idea of legal action after an incident on Tuesday in the southern city of Bari, where he was heckled by about 15 youths shouting buffone, buffone - "fool" or "clown".

In another incident last week reporters heard a heckler yell the same word at Mr Berlusconi after the prime minister had given testimony to the Milan court where he is on trial accused of bribing judges.

Subsequently, Mr Berlusconi was irritated by the decision of a traditionally left-leaning state television channel to broadcast the courtroom barracking on TG3, one of its main news programmes.

After Mr Berlusconi suggested that the incident had been a "well-planned ambush", managers at Rai, the state broadcasting company, sent inspectors to the offices of TG3 to conduct an investigation.

Members of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party meanwhile pushed a proposal through a parliamentary committee that would imprison journalists for up to three years if found guilty of libel. Mr Berlusconi said later that this proposal was not government policy but it prompted Massimo D'Alema, a former centre-left prime minister, to express concern about "worrying episodes of intimidation aimed at limiting freedom of the media".

Politicians from Mr Berlusconi's centre-right majority and the centre-left opposition said the dispute should be seen in the context of regional and local elections on May 25, which will be an important test of the two-year-old government's popularity.

Mr Berlusconi's supporters said he felt under attack from several quarters: the parliamentary opposition, various prosecutors and judges whom he sees as engaged in a leftwing plot to usurp democracy, unofficial civic movements that organise street rallies, and now hecklers.

After the incident in Bari, Mr Berlusconi said: "In the past 20 days, wherever I've gone, on every occasion there have been organised demonstrators shouting insults. This is not acceptable in a civilised country. I don't believe I'm illiberal, but if this climate doesn't stop I will issue legal proceedings against those who attack the institutional office I hold."

He stressed that he had in mind offences against the office of the prime minister, rather than against himself personally.

[YogsVR4]

If it were Bush that said the same thing, I could have generated a lot more responses.

[Jimster]

I would respond but I was chucked in jail for heckling our primeminister

[taranaki]

Originally posted by YogsVR4
If it were Bush that said the same thing, I could have generated a lot more responses.

But it wasn't.I daresay most AF members don't get too interested in Italian politics....but then the likes of Mr Berlusconi haven't been interfering with the rest of the world's affairs for the last 6 decades,or setting themselves up as the ultimate moral authority.

I'll stick to my original argument on this one.It's his country,so it's not really a matter of interest to me.The people who voted him in have only themselves to blame.It's not like he's up to anything underhand,like occupying Iraq on the bogus premise of WMD'S,or anthing like that.....I mean,the Iraqis never voted for a war,did they?