Politics
Italy: Berlusconi attacks country's judiciary, media
Rome, 28 October (AKI) - Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi attacked the country's judiciary calling them "communists" after an appeals court on Tuesday confirmed the sentence of British tax lawyer David Mills for having accepted a 600,000 dollars bribe from the premier in 1997.
"The real Italian anomaly is not Berlusconi, they are those communist public prosecutors and judges," said the premier in a telephone interview during a broadcast of the popular TV programme Ballaro, shown on Italy's public station RaiTre.
"Those 109 magistrates are interested in me, and have, since Berlusconi entered politics decided to attack him with numerous initiatives," said the premier, speaking in third person.
"But is it true that Silvio Berlusconi was the most criminal businessman in the world?" the premier asked himself.
According to Berlusconi, the real "opposition" in the country are the judiciary as well as journalists and so-called "left-wing TV programmes."
The premier attacked RAI, saying "Italian public TV has an absolute prevalence of left-wing journalists as well as leftist TV programmes, a unique situation in the entire western world," he said during the telephone interview from his house, as the premier is still sick with Scarlet Fever.
Berlusconi, a media-mogul who indirectly controls three of Italy's seven terrestrial television channels, as well as three operated by the state-owned RAI which answers to a parliament dominated by his supporters.
Recently, the US-based non-governmental organisation Freedom House downgraded Italy to a country with a "Partly-Free" press.
Italy now ranks 73rd, behind the West African country of Benin, Israel in the Middle East and tied with the tiny South Pacific island of Tonga.
"The real Italian anomaly is not Berlusconi, they are those communist public prosecutors and judges," said the premier in a telephone interview during a broadcast of the popular TV programme Ballaro, shown on Italy's public station RaiTre.
"Those 109 magistrates are interested in me, and have, since Berlusconi entered politics decided to attack him with numerous initiatives," said the premier, speaking in third person.
"But is it true that Silvio Berlusconi was the most criminal businessman in the world?" the premier asked himself.
According to Berlusconi, the real "opposition" in the country are the judiciary as well as journalists and so-called "left-wing TV programmes."
The premier attacked RAI, saying "Italian public TV has an absolute prevalence of left-wing journalists as well as leftist TV programmes, a unique situation in the entire western world," he said during the telephone interview from his house, as the premier is still sick with Scarlet Fever.
Berlusconi, a media-mogul who indirectly controls three of Italy's seven terrestrial television channels, as well as three operated by the state-owned RAI which answers to a parliament dominated by his supporters.
Recently, the US-based non-governmental organisation Freedom House downgraded Italy to a country with a "Partly-Free" press.
Italy now ranks 73rd, behind the West African country of Benin, Israel in the Middle East and tied with the tiny South Pacific island of Tonga.
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