Media News - Monday, December 21, 2009

Italy: Facebook asks for govt meeting to discuss Internet row

The popular Internet social networking site, Facebook, is seeking a meeting with Italian senate speaker Renato Schifani to discuss the controversy over the site that arose after the attack on the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Director of European public policy for Facebook, Richard Allan, has sent a letter to Schifani requesting a meeting after he accused Facebook of an "instigation to violence" after the attack. On Thursday, Schifani which holds the country's second highest office said that Facebook is more dangerous than the terrorist groups of the 1970s. The Berlusconi attack created a fierce debate among thousands of supporters and opponents on the social networking site Facebook and the government has blamed it for being a factor in the attack against the premier. After the attack on Berlusconi on Sunday, Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni signalled tighter legislative measures to control Internet sites in a bid to reduce what it says is a "climate of violence" that caused Sunday's attack. The attack on Berlusconi occurred only a week after several hundred thousand people took to the streets of Rome for a protest entitled "No Berlusconi Day". It was largely organised mainly online through internet social networks. (ADN Kronos)

• Home |
• Seminars  |
• Events |
• Media Landscape |
• Newsroom|
• Media News|
• Resources

Terms of service and Privacy policy.

Copyright © 1992- 2011 European Journalism Centre. All rights reserved.

Valid XHTML and CSS.

European Journalism Centre

Sonneville-lunet 10
6221KT Maastricht
The Netherlands

Tel. : +31 43 325 40 30
Fax : +32 2 400 42 20

E-mail: info[at]ejc.net