Former EU commissioner Emma Bonino and more than 150 of her supporters are entering their third day of hunger strike in protest at what they claim is discrimination by Italian television against parties opposed to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Bonino claims her Radical Party has not been given equal air time and that the state broadcaster RAI is failing to obey a ruling by the country's media watchdog. When the broadcaster failed to comply, Bonino, a minister under former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, and her supporters occupied a part of the RAI studios in Rome in protest. "In Italy nobody knows what they are voting for, what is the European parliament, who is standing or on what platform," she told the Financial Times, blaming Berlusconi for undermining the debate. Silvio Berlusconi controls either directly, through his ownership of private broadcaster Mediasat, or indirectly through the state, more than 90 per cent of Italian TV. He has regularly been accused of abusing that power for both his political and business interests.
Former EU commissioner Emma Bonino and more than 150 of her supporters are entering their third day of hunger strike in protest at what they claim is discrimination by Italian television against parties opposed to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Bonino claims her Radical Party has not been given equal air time and that the state broadcaster RAI is failing to obey a ruling by the country's media watchdog. When the broadcaster failed to comply, Bonino, a minister under former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, and her supporters occupied a part of the RAI studios in Rome in protest. "In Italy nobody knows what they are voting for, what is the European parliament, who is standing or on what platform," she told the Financial Times, blaming Berlusconi for undermining the debate.
Silvio Berlusconi controls either directly, through his ownership of private broadcaster Mediasat, or indirectly through the state, more than 90 per cent of Italian TV. He has regularly been accused of abusing that power for both his political and business interests.
He has regularly been accused of abusing that power for both his political and business interests.
Plain facts aren't accusations. The sun has been accused of rising in the east every morning.
