Italian state broadcaster RAI last week suspended political talk shows ahead of key regional elections. The board of RAI, dominated by supporters of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, voted to cease airing the shows in the run-up to the 28-29 March polls to avoid possible sanctions from a parliamentary committee, Reuters reported.

RAI is temporarily replacing the talk shows with a series of moderated debates between electoral candidates. This, it says, will ensure that it is not in breach of an Italian law which requires the governmental broadcaster to guarantee equal airtime to politicians of all persuasions.

Berlusconi’s political influence over RAI, along with his family’s ownership of the broadcaster’s principal commercial rival, give him considerable influence over the country’s media.

Berlusconi’s Mediaset group owns three of Italy’s remaining four national television channels and the directors of Rai are named by a parliamentary committee dominated by Berlusconi stalwarts.

“This situation puts us on the same level of democracy and free press as Zimbabwe,” said Rosario Trefiletti, head of consumer union Federconsumatori, according to Reuters.

IPI Deputy Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: “Any democratic country must have independent media and a free flow of information. We are concerned that RAI’s decision to ban political talk shows ahead of regional elections is a reflection of the ongoing deterioration of media independence in Italy. IPI calls on the broadcaster to reverse the ban, and on politicians to refrain from allowing politics to limit media freedom.”