A bill that would have favoured the media empire of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been rejected today.
The country's president, Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, last night rejected the controversial media bill - which relaxes limits on media ownership - and sent it back to parliament.
It was the first time Mr Ciampi had refused to sign a bill into law for anything other than budget reasons and his decision was expected to raise tensions in Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, which was already talking about a settling of scores at a planned meeting in January.
Mr Ciampi said the media bill, which was approved by the governing coalition's majority in parliament, failed to guarantee plurality in the media and could lead to the formation of dominant positions, especially in the area of advertising.
Mr Berlusconi, who through his political office and business interests influences an estimated 95 per cent of Italian TV, appeared nonchalant ahead of the rejection.
"I will take into account what the head of the state says. And of the eventual changes he might propose," he told reporters after a meeting with Mr Ciampi. "If the changes were intelligent, parliament would take that into account."
The law would ease limits on media ownership and advertising revenues and pave the way for the partial privatisation of state broadcaster RAI.
Critics say it favours the Mr Berlusconi family's holding company Fininvest, which controls Italy's largest media empire, including Mediaset broadcaster, and would enable it to extend its already considerable reach.
"It's a significant setback and it has certainly angered Berlusconi," said Mr Franco Pavoncello, a professor of political science at John Cabot University in Rome. "It is likely [to be] the beginning of a couple of weeks of political conflict."