by Nomad
Thu Oct 22nd, 2009 at 04:21:05 AM EST
After yesterday’s failed resolution by the European Parliament on press freedom in Italy, as
reported by nanne, it is particularly worth highlighting this gem of a bombshell dropped by De Gondi last week in the Salon,
that lays bare one more of Berlusconi's stints:
An article published in El Economista at the beginning of August mentioned negotiations for a joint venture between Prisa and Telecinco.
Migeru provided the following translation:
| Il Cavaliere all'assalto del Paìs - l'Unità.it (28 agosto 2009) | | Il Cavaliere assaulting El Pais - l'Unità.it (28 August 2009) |
| Fatto è però che l'ingresso di Telecinco, la tv spagnola controllata da Mediaset, nell'azionariato di Prisa avrebbe come conseguenza il controllo di fatto del primo quotidiano di Spagna, El Paìs, la cui penetrazione in Sudamerica è potentissima e il cui prestigio indiscusso. Negli ambienti della politica e dell'editoria spagnola l'assalto di Berlusconi è dato per imminente: ottobre, forse già settembre. In un seminario del settore che si è svolto nei giorni scorsi sui Pirenei si è parlato apertamente di «italianizzazione» del sistema mediatico. Gli spagnoli usano il termine italianizzazione come noi usiamo «balcanizzazione»: intendono indebolimento dei controlli e delle regole, guerre sanguinose, potere del più forte sul più debole e, sullo sfondo, corruzione. | | It's a fact, though, that the entry of Telecinco, the Spanish TV [station] controlled by [Berlusconi's] Mediaset would have as a consequence the de facto control over the first newspaper in Spain, El País, whose [market] penetration in South America is very strong and whose prestige is unquestioned. In Spanish political and editorial circles Berlusconi's assault on El País is deemed imminent: october, maybe already September. The "italianization" of the media system was talked about openly in a [publishing] industry seminar that took place in the Pyrenees in recent days. Spaniards use the term "Italianization" like we [Italians] use the term "Balcanization": meaning a weakening of controls and rules, bloody wars, rule of the strong over the weak and, as background, corruption. |
| ... | | ... |
| Non è dunque irrilevante anche ai fini della capacità di censura ricostruire quel che sta avvenendo. Il gruppo Prisa, a due anni dalla morte del suo potentissimo fondatore Jesus de Polanco (detto "Gesù dal Gran Potere"), si trova indebitato per circa 5mila milioni di euro. La rovinosa situazione economica viene addebitata dagli analisti in primo luogo ad una errata operazione di fusione tra il comparto della carta stampata (il Pais in testa, primo quotidiano di Spagna per vendite, in buona salute economica) e tutto il settore televisivo di cui fanno parte la tv privata Cuatro, diverse radio e tv locali, un potente settore multimediale: il debito accumulato dalle tv ricade sulla carta stampata. | | [On account of El País reporting of the veline scandal over the summer] what is taking place is therefore not irrelevant to the ends of Berlusconi's ability to censor. The Prisa group, two years after the death of its very powerful founder Jesús de Polanco (called Jesús del Gran Poder [the Christ of the Great Power is a famous image and Easter religious procession in Spain]), finds itself indebted by around €5bn. The ruinous economic situation is attributed by analysts in the first place to a misplaced merger operation between the press branch (with El Pais at the head, in good economic health) and the TV sector composed by the private TV station Cuatro, various local TV and radio stations and a powerful media sector: the debt accumulated by the TVs fell on the press sector. |
| Il principale concorrente nel settore privato di Prisa è il gruppo Mediapro che fa capo a Jaume Roures, proprietario della Sexta (un'altra importante tv privata) del quotidiano in ascesa Publico e di molti altri media minori. La battaglia per i diritti del calcio ha visto il gruppo Mediapro prevalere su Prisa, oggi nelle mani dei figli e dei nipoti del fondatore. Dal punto di vista politico Mediapro è oggi più vicino a Zapatero di quanto non lo sia El Paìs, le cui relazioni col governo socialista si sono andate raffreddando. Tra la Cuatro e la Sexta c'è Telecinco, di proprietà di Berlusconi. | | The main private competitor of Prisa is the Mediapro group which is led by Jaume Roures, owner of the Sexta (another important private TV station) the rising newspaper Público and many other minor media. The battle over football [TV] rights has seen the Mediapro group prevail over Prisa, now in the hands of the sons and nephews of the founder. From a political standpoint, Mediapro is today closer to Zapatero than El País, whose relationship with the Socialist government has been cooling. After Cuatro and Sexta is Telecinco, owned by Berlusconi. |
However, in the same thread Migeru also provided further context, which makes it less clear if Mediaset’s take-over would be an immediate threat to the independence of
El País.
Migeru:
Just to clarify: PRISA owns El País and also Sogecable which is the private TV company. Prisa and Sogecable are separately quoted in the Madrid stock exchange: Sogecable is not a wholly owned subsidiary of PRISA. However In 2006 Prisa made a public acquisition bid on 20% of Sogecable's actions to increase its participation up to almost 50%. Prisa increased its stake above the 50% mark in late 2007, triggering a mandatory (by Spanish law) bid for the remainder of the shares.[1] At the close of the offer period on 12 May 2008, Prisa announced that it held over 95% of Sogecable's share capital.
This means that Berlusconi can buy a participation in Sogecable without impacting the ownership of El País.
It appears Mediaset wants to buy all or part of Sogecable (Prisa's audiovisual media branch) but it is not clear whether they will acquire a share of Prisa itself. See Berlusconi consuled Mariano Rajoy on the possible purchase of Sogeacble (El Mundo, 09/10/2009). Also, Berlusconi close to a big deal with Prisa (PR Noticias, 14/10/09) which does mention the possibility that Prisa issue new shares in conjunction with the sale of a part of Sogecable to Mediaset.
Not unrelated, there's Berlusconi's mingling in telecommunication companies, which could be of use as political leverage for a deal with Prisa:
De Gondi:
Here's another article published October 5th on the battle over Telecom and Berlusconi's conflict of interests. The Spanish Telefonica has 42,3% of Telco which effectively controls Telecom. This prevents Telecom from becoming a dynamic international player. Either Telecom stays put or Telefonica has to see its presence marginalized. According to the article Berlusconi could use his role as PM to forward his interests with Prisa by putting pressure on Telefonica in Italy. I'll leave it to our economists to clarify that point. An accompanying article by Stefano Carli that illustrates the situation of telecommunications in Spain and Prisa's crisis is not available on the net.
Berlusconi's Telecinco is already the leader in audience shares in Spain and has its eyes on Prisa's Cuatro TV. Are we going to witness the berlusconisation of Spain- and Latin America- in the near future? Is it already on the way? With Cuatro and El Pais under the belt all Berlusconi would need is a compliant rightwing PM.
These developments bear further watching. What an infiltration of Berlusconi’s companies could potentially mean for the Spanish press (or even Spanish politics) is illustrated by De Gondi's description of the situation of the media in Italy:
De Gondi:
Berlusconi has always sought to take over the independant press, the most famous case being the Mondadori takeover through bribery for which his group was condemned. The recent sentence in a civil court condemned his group to pay 750 million euro damages to the De Benedetti group.
The Mondadori take-over however was not as complete as he desired. At the time it also included the Espresso-La Repubblica group that managed to break out of the deal thanks to very heavy political pressure at the time, as well as the craftiness of the E-R group. Had Berlusconi prevailed he would have controlled la Repubblica and L'Espresso giving him a monopoly of the two major weeklies as well as the leading Italian paper as of 1992.
La Repubblica is perhaps the only major "pure" editorial enterprise in Italy. All major papers are controlled as bargaining chips in the political arena by industrial giants or political parties (Corriere della Sera, la Stampa, Sole 24 Ore. This has accustomed Italian readers to impulsively suspect hidden objectives behind the news rather than plain editorial professionality.
In conclusion, the Berlusconi press has launched a ridiculous smear campaign against the judge who condemned Berlusconi to pay damages. Judge Mesiano is a very strange person! He goes to the barber shop, smokes, shows signs of impatience at times, but above all he wears blue trousers, turquoise socks and white loafers. Indeed, highly suspicious! Prime morning reportage. Paranoia galore!
One wonders if this kind of information was known to many MEPs yesterday when a razor thin majority decided to vote down a resolution that would have condemned Berlusconi’s role in the Italian press.
