NOTIZIARIO del 27 novembre 2003

The Guardian sul caso di Sabina Guzzanti
stralci da un articolo di John Hooper, da The Guardian del 27 novembre, traduzione di Giulia Alliani per Bollettino Osservatorio

"Vivendo in Italia ci sono momenti in cui, per ricordarsi che ci si trova veramente in un paese avanzato e sviluppato, e' necessario farsi un giro e vedere che esistono negozi di computer e autostrade a sei corsie."

Questo e' quanto dice oggi John Hooper, inviato in Italia del Guardian, raccontando ai suoi lettori delle condanne nei processi Imi-Sir, Mondadori e Sme, della prossima approvazione della legge Gasparri, e infine di quello che lui considera il fatto che "desta la maggiore preoccupazione", cioe'la richiesta di danni da parte di Mediaset alla RAI per lo spettacolo di Sabina Guzzanti.

a richiesta di danni, secondo Hooper, "ha portato in piena luce, come mai era accaduto prima, il modo in cui i seguaci e gli impiegati del Primo Ministro possono ora porre dei limiti a cio' che viene trasmesso sugli altri grossi canali che sono controllati dallo Stato" .

Continua Hooper: "La reazione del Ministro degli Esteri italiano e' stata tipica. Franco Frattini ha detto di essere 'a favore della satira, ma non di quella che da' origine alla possibilita'di insulti personali'.

Hooper ricorda infine "l'ultimo sviluppo" della vicenda, che reputa essere anche il piu' "sinistro", e cioe' l'azione legale iniziata dalla stessa RAI nei confronti di Sabina Guzzanti per aver violato i suoi impegni nei confronti dell'emittente di stato, usando materiale di proprieta' della Rai e trasmettendolo su un canale satellitare concorrente.

"Dove potra'esibirsi Sabina la prossima volta?" si chiede Hooper. Probabilmente in un club privato o in qualche piccola TV locale. E a questo punto scatta il paragone: "Ecco, c'e'un parallelo storico che e' possibile fare con un paese non troppo lontano. In Spagna, ai tempi di Franco, incredibilmente, era possibile assistere a clamorose ridicolizzazioni della sua dittatura, nei teatri di Madrid o di Barcellona. I censori non badavano ai teatri e ai cabaret, perche' il loro pubblico era per la maggior parte costituito da Spagnoli di citta', sofisticati, appartenenti al ceto medio, che costituivano ormai una causa persa per il regime.

La massa del pubblico guardava la Television Espanola, di proprieta' dello Stato, e quella veniva tenuta rigorosamente sotto controllo,perche' non vi comparisse nemmeno il sospetto di una critica. L'Italia non e'ancora a questo punto. Eppure... C'e' si' ancora un dibattito aperto e vigoroso, anche sui canali di Berlusconi. Ma in un'epoca in cui molti paesi in Europa, al centro e all'est, si stanno trasformando in societa' aperte', come ha gia fatto la Spagna, l'Italia sta scivolando nella direzione opposta" .

Testo originale integrale:

THE GUARDIAN Watch what we tell you With Silvio Berlusconi tightening his grip on Italian TV, Franco's Spain was more libertarian than today's Italy,

John Hooper in Rome Thursday November 27, 2003

There are times, living in Italy, when you need to go and look at a computer showroom or a six-lane highway just to remind yourself you really are in an advanced, developed nation. Last week, the prime minister's former lawyer was convicted of bribing a judge with cash from a bank account opened by a top executive of the company that sits at the apex of the prime minister's business empire. It was the second time this year he had been convicted of buying favourable judgements for his clients. Next week, parliament is due to approve a law that will overturn a ruling by the country's highest court that would have weakened - if only slightly - the prime minister's comprehensive grip on what his voters watch on television. Silvio Berlusconi owns all three of the biggest private channels and the constitutional court's ruling would have forced him to move one of them to satellite.

But it was arguably what happened this week that gives rise to the greatest concern, for it brought into the open as never before the way in which the prime minister's followers and employees can now limit what is shown on the other big, state-owned channels. His TV group Mediaset announced it wanted 20 million euros in damages from Italy's public broadcaster, RAI, and the producers of a satirical programme featuring a comedienne, Sabina Guzzanti. Mediaset claims it was grossly defamed in the first - and only - programme of what was to have been a series. It says its business suffered as a result. A lot of right-wing politicians who support the government were also outraged by Ms Guzzanti's humour. They said she put on a left-wing rant. The reaction of Italy's foreign minister was typical. Franco Frattini said he was "in favour of satire, but not the sort that gives rise to the possibility of personal insults." Just the threat of a writ from mighty Mediaset was enough to persuade the director-general of RAI, Flavio Cataneo, to scrap Ms Guzzanti's show. "I love satire", he said this week. But he added: "I said 'satire' and not political campaigning."

RAI's executives, it has to be said, are in an impossible position. Parliament, to which they are ultimately responsible, is dominated by followers of the man who owns their direct competitor and who, as head of the government, is in a position to have laws framed that favour his own group's interests at the expense of the public broadcaster. Even so, the president of RAI, Lucia Annunziata, has been openly critical of her director-general's retreat in the face of enemy fire. And that was before the latest, most sinister development. Banished from the screens, Ms Guzzanti took the second edition of her programme to a live audience at the Auditorium in Rome and, by way of a satellite link, to viewers in other parts of the country. The result? Another legal action, initiated - not this time by Mediaset - but by RAI. Mr Cattaneo ordered her to be sent a legal warning that she was in breach of her commitments to the state broadcaster. She had used material in her second show that belonged to RAI and had it broadcast by a satellite channel that was in competition with RAI.

An opposition MP remarked that the director-general "was assuming the appearance of the prime minister's 'bouncer'". Where Ms Guzzanti and her producers take their show next remains to be seen. But they are clearly being forced to offer their humour - or propaganda, if you will - to ever-smaller numbers of people. The next stop, if there is one, will presumably be a club or some regional or municipal TV station of the sort that broadcasts advertising shows for most of the day on channel 48. There is a striking historical parallel here from a not so distant country. In the days when Spain was ruled by General Francisco Franco, you could watch surprisingly blatant ridicule of his dictatorship on the stages of Madrid and Barcelona. His censors didn't care about theatres and cabarets, because they were attended, for the most part, by sophisticated, urban, middle-class Spaniards who were already a lost cause to the regime.

The mass audience watched state-owned Television Espanola and that was strictly controlled to ensure there was never a breath of criticism. Italy has not reached that situation. Yet. There is still open and vigorous debate to be found, even on Silvio Berlusconi's own channels. But at a time when many nations in Europe, in the centre and east, are turning themselves into open societies in the same way that Spain did, Italy is slipping in the opposite direction. .

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