Berlusconi attacks television show he can't control

ROME - With the general election less than a month away, Silvio Berlusconi has taken aim at one of the last bastions of press objectivity.

The media billionaire, who directly or indirectly controls nearly all the nation's television output, described a painstakingly neutral political programme as "scandalous", wondering aloud why it was "tolerated".

Berlusconi declared that political discussion programme Ballaro, shown weekly on RAI's channel 3, was in effect propaganda for the centre-left opposition and "picks a studio audience totally composed of left-wingers".

"That programme is a weapon of war with tailor-made reports," he said, adding it was a "scandalous" that the board at RAI - the state broadcaster- "tolerated" it.

- INDEPENDENT