A Mediterranean Spring?

I was just reading this article from the Guardian, on the Tunisian bloggers  that have been so instrumental to the revolution that started an avalanche of revolutions in the Arab world and is eventually leading to the country's first free elections.

I wonder whether the Arab spring will finally infect Italy next spring, when we might have the chance of new elections? Also in Italy there is a lively online community of people against the system that share news outside the traditional media controlled by the dwarf Berlusconi.

It's very telling that even high profile journalists like Michele Santoro find the web as the only mean to keep expressing their opinions. Mr. Santoro is a left wing journalist and TV presenter that until last year presented Anno Zero, a programme on Rai 2 (RAI is the Italian public television but it's heavily controlled by the Government) which week, in week out received great ratings. RAI decided to stop the programme, a very odd decision as the programme was among the most successful for the broadcaster. The decision doesn't seem odd from a political perspective, as Santoro was alway very critical of the Berlusconi Government.

As a last resolution Mr Santoro has launched the website Servizio Pubblico "Public Service", a tongue in cheek reference to the public service, which RAI is supposed to offer, but is no longer doing due to political pressure. He will also start a new TV programme that will air mainly online and on a series of local and digital channels.

This clearly shows that there are many people in Italy going against the establishment, but how many people still rely only on the traditional media, and are therefore unlikely to be exposed to any anti-Berlusconi or even factual news? Let's no forget that Italy has an ageing population. And Italians love TV. Which is bad news as the quality of the TV programmes in Italy is terrible.

With Berlusconi controlling Mediaset, the main private TV broadcaster, and his Government also controlling the public TV, it's clear that freedom of speech is no longer granted in Italy.

David vs Goliath / Santoro vs Berlusconi

Gag Law

Unfortunately, while Italy is in the middle of its worst economic crisis and at risk of default, our politicians think it’s more important to spend time passing undemocratic laws that will eventually limit freedom of speech, rather than take care of the economy. This is of course thanks to our Prime Minister, who has quite a few skeleton in the closet.

As a consequence of the Wiretapping Act, several websites and blogs will have no choice but to shut down, Wikipedia has already shut down its Italian page (at the moment just as a form of protest):

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011/en

"This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.

Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge - the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website.

Hence, anyone who feels offended by any content published on a blog, an online newspaper and, most likely, even on Wikipedia would have the right for a statement ("correction") to be shown, unaltered, on the page, aimed to contradict and disprove the allegedly harmful contents,regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources." 

That is why I decided to start writing this blog. If the parliament will pass the law, they will still have no power over what is published abroad, and also, I feel that there is a lack of information published in English regarding what's happening in Italy.

 

I was surprised how the Wikipedia news didn't resonate here in the UK, so I decided to contact John Hooper from The Guardian, who wrote a piece about the Wiretapping Act a few weeks ago. He was nice enough to reply, but unfortunately his editor didn't want to publish the story.

The news was eventually published by a few high-reach websites such as BBC News and Reuters, but still I am surprised how nobody is making a big fuss about it outside of Italy. This law clearly goes against the principle of freedom of speech, and every democratic country should stand for it.