His fans see him as an aggressive but penetrating TV anchorman. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who owns most of the country’s private channels and wields indirect control over the state network, RAI, sees him as a dangerous leftist. Meet Michele Santoro, the temporarily banned hero of Italian current affairs broadcasting.
Santoro, who presents Italy’s top current affairs show, Annozero, was handed a two-week suspension last week by RAI’s managing director, Mauro Masi.
The outspoken broadcaster had accused the RAI management of denying contracts to his co-presenters and appeared to half-utter the Italian equivalent of “go fuck yourself” on air. But his two-show ban, he claims, is to do with a vendetta waged against him by the prime minister, whose speeches Santoro once compared with those of Benito Mussolini.
In his latest show, Santoro addressed Berlusconi about his suspension: “We are the top current affairs show on Italian TV, which is why you — who I have always respected — are so put out. We are not losing, we are strong, and that is a huge problem.”
Santoro then appealed to his audience to sign a petition against his suspension.
Unusually among Italian broadcasters, Santoro has made a habit of probing the dark corners of Berlusconi’s political and business empire, covering corrupt contracting allegations, supposed dalliances with prostitutes and alleged past links to the mafia.
Berlusconi has shrugged off countless inquiries. However, what reportedly enrages him is the audience ratings Santoro wins — numbers that grow every time the prime minister allegedly urges RAI functionaries to sabotage the show.
When Annozero, alongside all other political talk shows, was pulled off RAI by the government ahead of regional elections in March — officially to guarantee balanced broadcasting — Santoro struck a deal with Sky, opening his show with the Mussolini comparison.
Masi, who joined RAI 18 months ago after serving in Berlusconi’s Cabinet, has also become a target. When he was wiretapped in a criminal probe and the transcripts were leaked, Santoro delighted in revealing how Masi had said that “not even in Zimbabwe” did governments work so hard to censor the press.
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