Allocation of frequencies not 'transparent' - The European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that the way television broadcasting frequencies have been distributed in Italy breaches European Union law.
Judges said that a succession of legislation regulating the country's television sector had effectively favoured existing broadcasters, barring access to would-be competitors.
In short, the process for allocating frequencies ''does not follow objective, transparent and non-discriminatory selection criterion,'' judges said.
The ruling has a direct bearing on a nine-year dispute involving one of the TV channels of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, which is accused of occupying the frequencies another private network.
The dispute dates back to 1999 when the Europa 7 channel received authorisation to broadcast nationally but was never allocated the frequencies it needed to do so.
This was because the Berlusconi-owned Rete 4 channel never switched to satellite broadcasting as it had been required to do by a 1997 law on media pluralism and by a subsequent Constitutional Court ruling.
A media reform law passed by the Berlusconi government in 2004 enabled Rete 4 to continue broadcasting.
When Europa 7 took its case to an Italian administrative court, demanding confirmation of its right to broadcasting frequencies and compensation from the state for not being given them, judges ruled against it.
The case went to Italy's highest administrative court, the Council of State, which then turned to the European Court to get clarification on what European law said on the issues in question. It was not immediately clear what the impact of Thursday's widely expected ruling by judges in Strasbourg would be.
Mediaset, the Berlusconi group which owns Rete 4 and two other national networks, said it would have ''no consequences regarding the use of the frequencies available to Rete 4''.
The European ruling was only relevant to Europa 7's request for compensation, it added.
Europe 7 owner Francesco Di Stefano thought differently: ''I am very satisfied because the sentence leaves no room for doubt. Mediaset is making a big mistake when its says the sentence only refers to the compensation request. It refers to the frequencies''.
The TV station said it now expected the Council of State to allocate it the frequencies it had been authorised to use in 1999.
Rightwing MP Maurizio Gasparri, who was communications minister at the time of the media reform which saved Rete 4, said the legislation could be brought into line with European demands on frequency allocations with a ''small modification''.
The European Commission opened proceedings against Italy in 2006, saying that the Gasparri law unfairly favoured Mediaset and RAI state television. The centre-left government of Romano Prodi prepared a new law to rectify the situation and the draft was approved in December by a House committee. But the government collapsed before the bill could go to the floor for definitive approval.
