DA “la casa della liberta’” (QUELLA VERA)

Freedom of speech and the press is constitutionally guaranteed. However, Italy continues to suffer from a concentration of media power in the hands of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who, through his private media holdings and political power over the state television networks, controls 90 percent of the country’s broadcast media.

In April 2004, the Senate adopted the Gasparri law on broadcasting, which ostensibly introduced a number of reforms, including the preparation for the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting that is due to take place in 2006. However, the law has been heavily criticized for providing measures that serve the interests of Berlusconi’s extensive media holdings. For example, the antitrust limits set by the law would enable Berlusconi to continue to dominate the private media market. In addition, the law removed a previous restriction on one person’s owning more than two national broadcasting stations, allowing Retequattro, one of three television stations owned by the Berlusconi-dominated Mediaset group, to continue terrestrial broadcasting. However, shortly after Berlusconi’s poor showing in the April 2005 elections, Finivest, the company at the apex of Berlusconi’s business empire, reduced its stake in Mediaset from 50.9 to 34.3 percent, minimizing his control of the media giant. The move, according to The Guardian, was intended to boost Berlusconi’s image for the upcoming elections in spring 2006.

In January 2005, a court in Rome condemned the Italian public broadcaster RAI for the removal of a TV journalist, Michele Santoro, in 2002. Santoro was one of three journalists critical of the government who were removed from RAI for alleged “criminal use of public television.” Parliament has still not passed a proposed bill that will abolish prison sentences for libel. After the London bombings in July 2005 by Islamic extremists, parliament approved a new antiterrorism law that includes surveillance of the internet and phone networks. The law allows the government to compile a list of mobile phone users to help the police investigating suspected terrorist crimes.

Freedom of religion is respected and guaranteed by the constitution. A revised Concordat in 1984 established the secular state in Italy. Although Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, and the Catholic Church is granted some privileges by the state, there is no state religion. In addition, the state provides support, if requested, to other religions represented in the country. To date, the state has signed agreements with a number of religious groups but has yet to pass an omnibus religious freedom law. Academic freedom is respected and protected.

Italians are free to organize into social and political associations. However, a bill introduced into parliament by the conservative majority in 2004 sought to ban child protests. The new law, if it goes into effect, will fine parents up to $2,500 if they allow their children under 12 years of age to participate in street protests. Despite this, civil society remains robust. Between 35 and 40 percent of the workforce is unionized. In November 2005, the country was paralyzed by a national strike called by the three leading unions in protest over the government’s proposed cuts in the 2006 budget. In December 2004, a similar nationwide strike against the government’s economic policies-which included then plans for an $8 billion cut in public sector spend-ing-crippled the country for a day. The plans for cuts were in response to a European Commission’s warning for Italy to reduce its public debt, which is the third largest in the world.

The independence of the country’s judiciary continues to be undermined by long trial delays and the influence of organized crime. The 2005 U.S. State Department’s human rights report states that trial delays are caused, in part, by the lack of any effective limits on the length of pretrial investigations, the large number of minor offenses included in the penal code, unclear and contradictory legal provisions, and insufficient resources, including an inadequate number of judges. The courts also have the ability to determine when a law’s statute of limitations applies. In December 2004, judges dropped bribery charges filed in 1999 against Berlusconi for events that occurred in 1991. The charges were dropped on the grounds that the statue of limitations had expired.

Despite legal prohibitions against torture, there were reports of excessive use of force by the police, particularly against illegal immigrants. The brutality trial of 75 people, including some of Italy’s most senior police officers, began in October 2005. The defendants are accused of orchestrating and participating in a campaign of brutality against protestors at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.

Comunisti che fine avete fatto? oi ci siete?
avete comprato la barca anche voi?

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Volevo fare i complimenti a Di benedetti, ultraliberista che sta aspettando che fallisca alitalia per comprarla a due soldi…
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Lavoratori,gente comune smettetela di votare il doppio comitato D’affari centro destra e centro sinistra…Poi non lamentatevi se non cancellano la legge 30, se i vostri stipendi tenderanno ad abbassarsi… la colpa è dei liberisti o meglio pseudo liberisti che vi trattano come pedine solo per arrichirsi ancor di più sulla vostra forza lavoro.
Ribellatevi, bloccate,manifestate, scioperi selvaggi…alzate la testa contro i tiranni liberisti che vedono il lavoro come un costo da scaricare….Sidacati dove siete?? ah vero sono collusi da tempo con Confindustria.
NO GLOBAL SEMPRE E PER SEMPRE AUTARCHIA EUROPEA PER FERMARE GLI IMPERIALISTI ANGLOAMERICANI, E la Vergogna di Istraele che nessun media la condanna per il suo vergognoso operato militare.