Italy: Watchdog fines TV channels for pro-Berlusconi bias

Rome, 24 May (AKI) - Five Italian television programmes have been fined for allegedly violating election rules by allowing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to rally voters on air ahead of a second round of local polls without including opposition views.

Italy's communications regulator Agcom slapped fines ranging from 100,000-258,230 euros on two of Italy's public broadcaster RAI's news programmes and three of Berlusconi's private Mediaset news bulletins. Mediaset has said it plans to appeal the fines.

"The authority reaffirms the duty for balanced and complete information until the end of the election campaign," Agcom said in the statement.

In a series of interviews aired last Friday, Berlusconi sought to mobilise his centre-right political base for the mayoral run-offs being held this weekend in many Italian cities, branding the centre-left opposition as "extremist".

If local elections are a gauge of the national political mood, the ruling Italian right may be worried.

But the billionaire media-tycoon-turned-politician tried quash speculation that his conservative coalition government could fall before the end of its term in 2013, claiming there was "no alternative".

In the first round of voting in mayoral elections on 15-16 May, Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PdL) and its Northern League coalition partner took a drubbing in several cities including the financial capital Milan, Berlusconi's home town.

For the first time in 14 years, the centre-left challenger forced a conservative incumbent mayor -in this case the PdL's Letizia Moratti - to a run-off, after soundly defeating her by six percentage points. A second round is required since nobody received at least 50 percent of the vote,

Agcom has previously sent complaints about pro-government bias to several popular news programmes broadcast on RAI and Mediaset networks.

Berlusconi's domination of Italian broadcasting through his ownership of three out of four private national TV networks and his influence as prime minister of RAI is a frequent subject of controversy.