The newly appointed head of
Raidue, Carlo Freccero, on Thursday said he wanted to bring back
to the airwaves a comic who was among those banned by then
premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly biased interference in
the 2001 general election.
Potty-mouthed comedian and satirist Daniele Luttazzi has not
worked on State broadcaster RAI since the so-called 'Bulgarian
edict', issued in 2002 while media magnate turned politician
Berlusconi was in Sofia.
Two other highly popular TV figures, the late veteran
journalist and presenter Enzo Biagi and presenter and journalist
Michele Santoro, disappeared from RAI's airwaves along with
Luttazzi after being criticised by Berlusconi on his Bulgarian
visit.
The billionaire media magnate, who owns Italy's private
TV network Mediaset, accused the trio of having slashed his May
2001 election lead by making "criminal" use of state TV.
Biagi was criticised in particular for interviewing
left-wing comic and Oscar-winning filmmaker and actor Roberto
Benigni on the eve of the elections.
Biagi, Santoro and Luttazzi, who was deemed guilty of
interviewing waspish Berlusconi critic and journalist Marco
Travaglio, were dropped by RAI not long after Berlusconi's
complaint.
On Luttazzi's Satyricon show, Travaglio presented his book
The Smell of Money allegedly detailing the allegedly illicit
provenance of the magnate's first seed money to start the
construction empire that bankrolled his entry into commercial
TV.
Luttazzi and Travaglio were sued for 10 million euros by
Berlusconi, and were acquitted in 2015.
The three cases led to allegations of censorship at the
broadcaster under Berlusconi's government, accusations which
were heatedly denied by RAI management.
Biagi and Santoro returned to the broadcaster in 2006 but
Luttazzi has not been seen on terrestrial TV since, although he
has worked with Sky.
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