(ANSA) - Rome, March 16 - A ban on political talk shows on state broadcaster RAI ahead of regional elections later this month must stand, RAI's parliamentary watchdog said Tuesday.

The ban, imposed last month after media watchdog Agcom decided to strictly apply an equal-time norm, has been fiercely contested by the centre-left opposition, TV journalists and campaigners for freedom of information.

The watchdog, which reflects the parliamentary balance of power held by Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party, voted along party lines, political sources said.

The ruling came despite last week's decision by a regional court in Lazio to lift the ban for private TV, after an appeal from Italy's fourth and smallest terrestrial station La 7 and the Sky satellite network.

RAI's board had voted Monday not to lift the ban but instructed its director-general, Mauro Masi, to seek further guidance from the watchdog.

RAI President Paolo Garimberti, a left-leaning journalist, and watchdog chair Sergio Zavoli, one of Italy's most respected liberal journalists, had both urged the watchdog to fall in with the regional court's decision.

Before the watchdog vote, Zavoli vainly appealed for a lifting of the ban, saying the equal-time norm "does not justify the idea of muzzling shows".

He then urged the panel to take a "middle way" in which the equal-time norm could be "interpreted so as not to affect the talk shows," MPs reported. After the decision, Zavoli said he had "a far from positive view of the ruling" and highlighted that the equal-time norm "solved fewer problems than the ones it created".

The ban has deprived RAI viewers of top-rating current affairs shows in the run-up to the March 28-29 vote in 13 of Italy's 20 regions.

Opponents of the ban also argue it has damaged RAI economically, in favour of the Berlusconi-owned TV network.

Masi rejected this contention, saying "RAI isn't losing a euro because advertisers are making it up in other spots at other times".

La 7 and Sky have already revived their political talk shows but Berlusconi's three channels, which dominate the private TV market, have not.

The latest watchdog ruling comes amid allegations that Berlusconi last year tried to exert pressure on Agcom and RAI to have allegedly hostile talk shows reined in or pulled.

Berlusconi is under investigation in the southern city of Trani on suspicion of possible abuse of office along with Agcom member Giancarlo Innocenzi and Carlo Ferri, a member of Italy's self-governing body, the Supreme Council of Magistrates, who was allegedly asked for a legal opinion on shutting down shows.

Also under investigation, on suspicion of telling Berlusconi about the probe, is the head of RAI's flagship news programme TG1, Augusto Minzolini, who has drawn fire in recent months over a series of allegedly pro-government 'editorials' and alleged censorship of anti-government news.

RAI's internal left-leaning union, Usigrai, on Tuesday evening called on the RAI board to take "swift" action against Minzolini for the latest of these editorials "in which he absolved himself twice in the space of a minute by falsely telling viewers he was not under investigation".

Two leftwing members of the RAI board, Nino Rizzo Nervi and Giorgio Van Straten, claimed that Minzolini was already waging "a campaign of reprisals" against TG1 members who did not sign a declaration of support for him.

An opposition MP, Pancio Pardi of the Italy of Values party, said "Minzolini should be on his way and instead he is purging journalists".

SANTORO TO STAGE WEB SHOW ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION.

The left-leaning talk-show host who was allegedly Berlusconi's prime target, Michele Santoro, said "the shows have been suspended illegally". Santoro, who was blacklisted for four years after Berlusconi accused him of making "criminal use of the airwaves" during the 2001 general election, said he would front an online show about freedom of information March 25 from a theatre in Bologna. But PdL spokesman Daniele Capezzone called the Trani probe and the "fuss" over the talks shows "part of a worrying plot staged by people who hate Berlusconi".

The media mogul-turned politician himself claimed that judicial cases against him are whipped up "like clockwork" at election time and "blown up by obliging dailies".

He urged supporters to react against "this umpteenth attack" by joining a protest rally the Pdl is organising in Rome on March 20.

He told supporters that the regional vote "will once again be a choice between our can-do government and the small-talking Left, between an Italy that loves and one that hates and envies".

photo: Santoro