Journalists strike over Berlusconi bill

Demonstrators hold banners reading in Italian 'Third millennium partisans' during a rally against the bill curbing the use of wiretaps in Rome on July 1.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134140§ionid=351020606


Italian journalists have gone on strike against a wiretap bill presented by the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to restrict the freedom of the press.

The bill would limit the right of prosecutors to plant bugs and record telephone conversations.

"This strike is important to one, one supported by the opposition parties which regards this bill is unworthy for any true civilized county as it limits the press," Flavio Arzarello, a member of the Left Federation Party, told Press TV on Friday.

Journalists say the bill will prevent them from reporting corruption allegations, but Berlusconi defended the bill by arguing that it aims to protect the privacy of those involved in judicial investigations.

According to the Italian premier, the bill is in line with international privacy standards.

"I don't understand this strike, the government is willing to consider the changes in the bill and besides by going on strike the press gagged itself," Ricardo Bruno, a member of the Italian Republican Party, told Press TV on the same day.

Journalists, however, say that the Italian government is seeking to protect its members and its allies by passing the bill.

Berlusconi and his government have been hit by a number of scandals through the publishing of transcripts of bugged conversations.

The Italian Parliament's lower house is scheduled to discuss the bill on July 29 after its June passage by the Italian Senate.