Prodi vows to overhaul 'awful TV'

Romano Prodi may have to do battle with Silvio Berlusconi again

Romano Prodi has pledged to reform Italian television, which critics describe as mind-numbing and highly politicised.

The Italian prime minister said he wanted to promote competition in a sector dominated by public broadcaster Rai and privately owned Mediaset.

But he faces resistance from Mediaset owner Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister for five years before his defeat in April's polls.

Campaign group Un'Altra Tivu (A Different TV) has called for public television to be independent, objective and impartial.

One of the group's leaders, Italian Green Party MP Tana De Zulueta, said it was hard to overstate the importance of television in Italy.

"This is a TV obsessed country," she told the BBC World Service's Analysis programme.

"The TV is on in every home at meals. TV is on in many restaurants when people go and eat out.

"So you never get away from it and most people's perception of what is going on, they get it from TV. TV is really decisive in defining reality in this country."

Mr Berlusconi is reported to have said that if something has not been on television it might as well not have happened.

Formulaic programmes

The average Italian watches four hours of television a day and for most families here, the box is culture.

Professor Paul Ginsborg of Florence University says television plays a key role in shaping the country.

"Italian society is fragmented," he said. "It's also a society that is time-poor. Nobody has enough time for anything."

He said in a society bereft of a vibrant civil society or political parties deeply rooted in the community, television matters.

Mr Berlusconi is accused of using his media empire for propaganda

But he said: "TV in Italy is awful."

Soaps, game shows and reality TV programmes clutter the prime time viewing schedule across the networks.

Critics blame the poor quality of many programmes on the dominance of Rai and Mediaset, which account for 85% of terrestrial TV audiences.

Last month Italy's broadcasting regulator condemned the dominance of Rai and Mediaset, while the EU Commission has said the current structure of Italian TV is unacceptable.

Ms De Zulueta said that these two networks stifle the emergence of any creative alternative.

"Between the two, they have sewn up the market, so if you want to sell a programme in Italy you have got to agree on the price with those two," she said.

"And that means quality has slipped, because there is no longer real competition."

Biased news claim

But it is the consequences for news broadcasting which Prof Ginsborg is most concerned about. He suggests that the absence of independent TV means news reporting is politicised.

News on Mediaset is often ridiculed because of its loyalty to its owner, Mr Berlusconi.

More or less chloroforming the people by means of endless appeals to consume, work and spend Paul Ginsborg on Berlusconi's TV

The news on Rai is just as bad, say critics, hamstrung by decades of being the plaything of the politicians who control it.

That needs to change if Italy is to mature as a democracy, said Prof Ginsborg.

"The first thing that must be done is to transform the nature of newscasting on these public channels," he said.

"The crucial thing on which the centre-left will be judged is whether it is able to introduce other themes into TV news."

However Antonio Palmieri, an MP for Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, says many of the best satirical programmes are to be found on Mediaset channels and they happily poke fun at the former prime minister as well as his opponents.

That said, some commentators have seen their TV careers cut short after Mr Berlusconi took umbrage at their remarks.

Prof Ginsborg draws a parallel between the way Mr Berlusconi operates now after his election defeat and the propaganda wizardry of former Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

"He's not got blackshirt men with clubs ready to knock you over the head if you don't agree," he said. "His regime is based on something in many ways more subtle and more insidious - that is, passivity...

"More or less chloroforming the people by means of endless appeals to consume, work and spend as the prime activity and motivation of life and to allow the politician to get on with the job.

"All that is dangerous for democracy."

With Mr Prodi's government enjoying the tiniest of parliamentary majorities, Mr Berlusconi could use any attempt to overhaul Italian television as the trigger for new elections.

For his part, Mr Prodi may have other pressing challenges aside from TV reform and decide that a battle over an issue so close to Mr Berlusconi's heart could be a bridge too far.