(ANSA) - Premier Silvio Berlusconi denied on Tuesday that his Mediaset group was interested in buying Italy's biggest daily, hinting that the rumours had been started deliberately to damage his credibility.
"I know that journalists are professionals who can distinguish between truth and fantasy. So it's legitimate to ask: who organised this (the rumours) and why?" the premier said in a statement.
The premier appeared confident that voters would believe that his Mediaset group - which owns three private TV channels, the Mondadori publishing company and Il Giornale daily among other assets - was not seeking to take over Corriere della Sera.
"Italians are reasonable people and they can tell the difference between intolerant, envious people full of hatred who are digging for dirt and someone who instead always manages to retain his serenity and fairness," the media mogul-turned politician added.
The premier's statement came in the wake of calls by some centre-left MPs calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.
Former anti-graft prosecutor-turned-politician Antonio Di Pietro also urged the premier to provide evidence that Mediaset was not involved in a bid to take over Corriere della Sera. Democratic Left MP Giuseppe Giulietti, a former journalist, said he would file a request urging Berlusconi to report to parliament on the issue.
Berlusconi has kept the cabinet's portfolio on publishing activities, Giulietti noted.
"One of the duties envisaged by this portfolio is monitoring the plurality of editorial activity, ensuring
market freedom and seeing that funds (handed out by the government) are shared out fairly," he said.
Berlusconi's name has come up in the transcripts of phone wiretappings which have been leaked to the press. The phone taps requested by Milan prosecutors recorded the conversations of top Italian financiers attempting to buy RCS Mediagroup, which owns Corriere.
Ubaldo Livolsi, a merchant banker who sits on the board of Mediaset, is one of the financiers involved in the RCS operation. He told Corriere on Monday that though the premier's name was mentioned by one of the financiers, Berlusconi was "not involved" in the operation. "I pledge on my honour and I give my word that my group is not interested in the RCS operation," the premier said last week, when the transcripts were published.
But on Monday, Corriere editorialist Sergio Romano argued in a comment entitled "The Premier's Shadow" that he still had a number of doubts. "I do not like it when the premier has to convince
Italians of not being involved by saying 'our group, my group'. I do not want to be reassured by a businessman...I want to receive assurances from the premier," said Romano.
The editorialist called for more transparency, saying that despite recent legislation meant to dispel doubts over the issue, Berlusconi still has an "unresolved conflict of interest" between his political powers and his business interests.
Centre-left opposition leader Romano Prodi said on Tuesday he was "extremely concerned" over reports that a group of financiers are trying to take over Corriere, one of the country's oldest and most respected dailies.
