Trends in the Italian Mass Media and Media Law

Abstract

This article focuses on recent trends in the Italian mass media. In broadcasting the first pirate stations challenged the RAI's monopoly in the first half of the 1970s. In the absence of a relevant law, chaos reigned, and gradually Fininvest, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, became the predominant protagonist in private television (in addition to being heavily involved in the media industry as a whole). The Constitutional Court repeatedly called for strict anti-trust measures. Finally, in 1990, parliament approved a new law which in fact merely confirmed the existing situation, i.e. the same company could control up to three national networks (in addition to having substantial interests in others). This law apparently contradicts the Constitutional Court's decisions. The article also analyses recent trends in the press and in the film industry, which, during the last decade, have also been subject to similar ownership concentration phenomena. In the words of a parliamentary commission `the current level of mass media concentration in Italy is now unparalleled in any other country with a market-based economy'.