August 10, 2005
Italy PM shocked by wiretapping, plans to ban it
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he plans to ban wiretapping and jail those who leak or publish recorded phone conversations – a move opponents said was an assault on free speech, reports The Gulf Times..
"Berlusconi told reporters late on Saturday that he was shocked by the almost daily revelations of phone calls between Italy's top financiers which have filled newspapers and rocked the banking establishment in recent days. “We are not a civilised country if we can read in a newspaper what a lady says to her boyfriend or husband,” Berlusconi said as he strolled near his villa in Sardinia.
Scores of taped conversations from a bank merger investigation have been leaked to the press over the last week, causing a newspaper feeding frenzy and fuelling calls for the resignation of the Italy's central bank governor Antonio Fazio.
The most widely cited conversation reveals a cosy relationship between Fazio, the country's banking antitrust chief, and the head of the Italian bank competing with a Dutch rival to buy Banca Antonveneta.
Many of the calls have no bearing on the takeover battle but reveal embarrassing or irrelevant personal details.
In an SMS message, Anna Falchi, the glamorous actress wife of real estate tycoon Stefano Ricucci, tells her husband: “Just to tell you I am the luckiest woman in the world because I have you. MY LOVE I LOOOVE YOU”.
The latest flurry of transcripts, published in La Repubblica daily on Saturday, name Berlusconi himself."
... As a result of the wiretapping saga, it has emerged that Italy has spent an estimated 1.25bn euros ($1.5bn) on intercepts in the past five years.
The Eurispes research institute said nearly 30mn people – more than half Italy's 58mn population – might have had phone calls recorded in the past decade.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/08/009470.htm
| Tweet |
