Wednesday,
October 11, 2006
The
ANNOTICO Report
In
a "Classic Case" of Freedom of the Press vs
Right of Privacy, with a dollop of the Press gathering information under false
pretenses....
the satirical TV program "The Hyenas" [ Le
Lene] was able to gather cell samples from 50 Italian
lower house deputies, by pretending to do makeup for a fake TV program
while supposedly interviewing them on aspects of the Italian 2007 Budget.
A
lab test of the cells gathered found almost one third had taken drugs in the
previous 36 hours, 12 of them testing positive for cannabis and four for
cocaine.
REUTERS
By
Gavin Jones
Tue Oct 10, ! 2006
The programme, Le Iene, announced on
Monday it had secretly tested 50 lower house deputies for illegal substances
and found almost one third had taken drugs in the
previous 36 hours, 12 of them testing positive for cannabis and four for
cocaine.
The latest
exploit by the Iene (the Hyenas), well known for
pranks that embarrass public figures, was on the front page of most of Italy's
newspapers on Tuesday, with politicians' reactions ranging from satisfaction to
anger.
A reporter for
the programme, pretending to be an interviewer for a
non-existent satellite TV show, approached the deputies for their views on the
2007 draft budget, while a bogus make-up artist dabbed their brow between
filming.
The cells
collected by the dabbing were then tested for drugs. Le Iene
is shown on Italia Uno, one of the three national
channels owned by Mediaset, the broadcaster
controlled by the family of former Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi.
The decision by
the privacy authority to block the programme's
transmission, scheduled for Tuesday evening, because the tests had been
conducted in a secret and illicit manner.
Several of the 50
deputies tested appealed for the programme to be
aired, and right-wing member of the European Parliament, Alessandra Mussolini,
the granddaughter of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, said the decision
showed
"The
censoring of a journalistic inquiry is a grave episode which I will take to the
European Parliament, it's an absolute disgrace," she said.
Italo Bocchino
of the conservative National Alliance party, who on Monday had threatened to
sue the programme makers, said in view of the public
outcry drug tests should be conducted on every member of
parliament.
"That way
the voters will know if the nation's representatives are people who break its
drugs laws," he said. The AN, which is in Berlusconi's centre-right
opposition, campaigns for drug use to be completely outlawed.
Liberal pressure
groups said the Iene had unveiled the hypocrisy
behind
"Absurd laws
have been passed which punish kids for smoking a joint, and then we find that
among the highest political offices people are taking too much cocaine,"
he said.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?
storyid=2006-10-10T161112Z_01_L10576452_
RTRUKOC_0_UK-ITALY-PARLIAMENT-
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