Roma Caput Digital ?

You may find it funny or worrying. It’s up to you. Italian press and other mass media have proudly claimed that Rome is the first European capital to switch to digital TV.
Nobody checked if it was true.

Actually one did. Francesco Zanfardino on Agoravox Webiste (you can read the article here ) tells us that Berlin was the first capital to switch to digital TV. Moreover Germany, Holland, Sweden, Finland and Luxemburg are entirely covered by digital TV.

What can we say? Not much about Italian mass media. Something more about the web. The information are just there, we should only have the goodwill to go through them.

The truth about Berlusconi’s Videocracy

A recent Italian movie named Videocracy tells the story of Italian television and of course cannot avoid talking about Italian premier that played a key role in it. The movie is a kind of documentary and it is not a masterpiece. However there is an idea you get from it that may need some more consideration.



In the movie there is a quick interview to a premier’s neighbor that owns a villa near his residence in Sardinia. She makes good money taking photos of mr. Berlusconi’s famous guests and she likes him very much (can blame her?). She expresses very interesting motivations: his energy, his will of enjoying life, his success. The fact he is a nice and kind person. A lot of people in Italy may like mr. Berlusconi for these reasons. Even if one do not approve his political behavior, it seems clear that he knows how to let people have good times. He definitely seem to be nice mate for a dinner or a vacation.

Here comes the great misunderstanding. Why should this funny man be a wise governor? Would you let one person make a surgical operation on your heart or brain only beacuse he is a very funny lunch mate? Sure you won’t. So why should this man be elected for is pleasantness or personal success?

Wrong Comparison

Canale 5, one of three commercial TV channels owned by Mr Berlusconi, last week secretly filmed judge Mesiano who only few days earlier had ruled against the prime minister’s Fininvest group. Although Claudio Brachino, the Canale 5 presenter, has apologized for the item, both he and other figures on the right have accused the centre-left of hypocrisy. “Does the right to privacy apply only to magistrates? . . . What about normal citizens or the prime minister?” asked justice minister Angelino Alfano, in an apparent reference to a series of “poolside” photographs “stolen” by paparazzi at Mr Berlusconi’s private Sardinian residence and published this summer. (Quoted from:Irishtimes.com)




Of course statements about privacy are fair. What is definitely not fair is comparing Italian Prime minister and the Judge. There is a wide difference between the two terms of comparison. There is also a huge difference between the episodes that have been investigated by press and other media.

Italians have the right to know what kind of person is their Prime Minister. This right include some investigation about his personal life. Do anybody remember what happened to President Clinton, when some doubts were raised about the fact he had said the truth about the episode with miss Lewinsky?

Considering in more detail what media analyzed further differences come out. The video on Judge Mesiano was a deliberate privacy violation showing private life episodes that nobody found interesting. The author himself apologized quickly. What Mr Berlusconi may have done is instead very interesting for those Italians who share some ethical values and religious belief.

Therefore is not fair to compare Judge Mesiano and Mr Berlusconi.