We have detected that the browser you are using is no longer supported. As a result, some content may not display correctly.
We suggest that you upgrade to the latest version of any of the following browsers:
close notification
The
editor of Italy's biggest-selling daily newspaper resigned
yesterday, amid suggestions that he had upset premier Silvio
Berlusconi.
The owners of the paper, RCS Media Group, gave no explanation for
the departure from the Milan-based centre right Corriere della Sera
of Ferruccio de Bortoli after six years in the editor's
chair.
He is to be replaced by columnist Stefano Folli.
The resignation of de Bortoli had been expected for some days and
has raised questions on the political left about the freedom of the
press. Staff on the paper also expressed worries.
A monthly magazine claimed that Berlusconi nursed a grudge against
de Bortoli, among other things for opposing the US-led war in Iraq,
which the centre-right government of Berlusconi backed.
De Bortoli was respected for being independent. The newspaper
reported yesterday that he had sent a letter of "irrevocable"
resignation to shareholders controlling RCS Media Group.
Competing newspaper La Repubblica noted that under de Bortoli,
Corriere della Sera had opposed the war in Iraq.
The right-wing government headed by Berlusconi had supported
military action.
Folli, aged 54, has been a commentator on the newspaper for 12
years. His articles are respected by people on both the right and
left of Italian politics.
The newspaper, which has a tradition of being on the centre-right
of Italian politics, is the leading newspaper in Italy with daily
circulation of 715 600.
At the beginning of May a specialist publication on the media,
Prima, had forecast that "something would happen", arguing that
Berlusconi "has some reason to be angry with the newspaper".
It said that the Prime Minister was ill disposed towards de Bortoli
because in 1994 he had written a front-page story revealing that
Berlusconi had been charged as he chaired a summit of G8 countries
in Naples.
Prime said that relations between the newspaper and the government
had reached the stage of a final reckoning.
Debate in Italy on freedom of the press is in the forefront in part
because Berlusconi owns the main private broadcasting group
Mediaset which competes with the state broadcaster RAI over which
the government can also exercise some influence. – Sapa-AFP.
Map
