Italian opposition chief and former premier Silvio Berlusconi cried foul on Thursday after the cabinet approved a bill which would put the squeeze on his media empire .
Berlusconi, who owns the three-channel commercial TV network Mediaset, said that "it's difficult now to consider this country a democracy" .
The billionaire media mogul, who narrowly lost Italy's April general election to centre-left leader Romano Prodi, pledged to battle the bill in parliament .
"It's an act of thievery... It is no longer democracy when those in government attack the opposition and its leader through his private property and companies," he said .
The bill, presented by Telecommunications Minister Paolo Gentiloni, would force both Mediaset and state broadcaster RAI to move one of their three terrestial channels to digital by 2009 .
Gentiloni said the two freed-up airwaves would be sold to competitors .
"Italy will finally start to look like a normal country," said the minister, who acknowledged that Mediaset and RAI would see their lucrative advertising revenues reduced as a result of the reform .
Mediaset and RAI, who together account for 85% of Italy's audience share, take more than 90% of money spent on TV advertising, with 66% going to Publitalia, the advertising arm of Berlusconi's business empire .
The "duopolistic" set-up has long been criticised by market regulators and the Constitutional Court .
The Court ruled in November 2002 that the current TV system failed to guarantee pluralism. It upheld a 1994 ruling that no private broadcaster should own more than two nationwide channels .
The government, then led by Berlusconi, sidestepped the ruling with a controversial emergency decree which saved one of Mediaset's channels from closure .
Mediaset said on Thursday that the planned media reform "deliberately targets one company". It denounced the bill as a "political vendetta" .
Prodi promised in his election campaign to reform a media law passed in 2004 when Berlusconi was in power .
The so-called Gasparri law watered down legislation on dominant positions, allowing cross-ownership of newspapers, TV and radio .
Although the law prevented broadcasters from accounting for more than 20% of the national advertising pie, it expanded definition of the market, lifting its total value to some 26 billion euros .
This has allowed Berlusconi's group to sell as much as 2 billion euros annually in extra advertising, critics say .
Berlusconi's centre-right coalition insisted the law would throw the market open to competition, protect minor players and regulate the switch to digital .
But critics said it was designed to boost Mediaset's market position and its profits .
The European Commission also criticised the law last July .
Acting on a complaint from a consumer rights' association, the EC said the so-called Gasparri law appeared to consolidate the positions of Mediaset and RAI and hamper would-be rivals from entering the digital market .
The EC gave the new Italian government two months to address its concerns or face legal action and ultimately a hefty fine .
However, Prodi's weak majority could make it extremely difficult for him to pass legislation perceived as damaging to Berlusconi's interests .
Prodi's government hangs by a thread in the Senate, where it has only one more seat than the opposition .
Since his entry into politics in 1993, Berlusconi has been dogged by criticism, both at home and abroad, for his dual role as prominent businessman and key politician .
His family holding company Fininvest is an unlisted group worth an estimated 12 billion dollars .
Mediaset is the jewel in the Fininvest crown but other prized assets include Italy's largest publishing house Mondadori, the financial services group Mediolanum, the AC Milan Serie A soccer club, the Medusa film production company, a key share of the Blockbuster Italia video chain and the Spanish TV group Telecinco .
