Newly appointed government spokesman Silvio Sircana looked set to retain his job on Wednesday despite a row triggered by a photo of him driving through an area worked by transsexual prostitutes.
Several newspapers on Wednesday published the photo, taken last September, of Sircana in his car apparently stopped next to a scantily clad transsexual.
Rumours of the photo's existence have been rife since last week when the media pounced on a widening probe into a VIP vice and extortion ring run by arrested paparazzo Fabrizio Corona.
Several government supporters said the photo was non-existent and accused pro-opposition media of fabricating the story in order to blacken Sircana's name.
The photographer who took the photo also briefly denied its existence and publicly apologised to Sircana.
The spokesman reportedly considered resigning but agreed to stay on after Premier Romano Prodi asked him to remain.
Sircana has now broken his silence over the case, possibly aware of the photo's imminent publication.
In an interview published by La Repubblica daily on Wednesday, he said: "I took a stupid, summer evening detour but why should I have to quit over it?... You can't crucify someone for such foolishness".
Sircana said the solidarity expressed by politicians of all stripes had convinced him that his "credibility as spokesman" had not been lost.
In an open letter published by Turin daily La Stampa together with the photo, Sircana said he did not feel a victim in the case because "independently of whether I like it or not, the photographer was simply doing his job".
"If anything, I was a victim of myself... It was a moment of stupid curiosity," said Sircana, a close aide of Prodi who was officially appointed earlier this month.
He stressed that the "presumed transsexual" did not get into his car and that no-one had attempted to blackmail him over the photo.
Sircana went on to defend the freedom of the press, saying it was one of the "sacred pillars of democracy".
He even criticised new norms aimed at protecting the privacy of public figures and which were issued by the Private Data Protection Authority after his name emerged as a potential victim of extortion.
The authority banned the media from releasing news regarding "private facts and conduct", particularly of a sexual nature, which were "not of public interest".
Sircana said in his letter to La Stampa that "I do not agree with the nature or the timing of this move".
But he said that "ethics should be a guide for the behaviour of those in the media field," admitting that "being caught up in something like this is painful, very painful".
"I know I'm not the only one to have received such treatment, aptly defined by (ex-premier Silvio) Berlusconi as 'media pillorying'," said Sircana, who was briefly hospitalised after the story broke last Wednesday.
However, there have been calls for Sircana to quit.
Isabella Bertolini, a top member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said Sircana had to go because the government had "lied" about the case.
Even some members of Prodi's own centre-left coalition were reported to be uncomfortable with Sircana remaining, including several lawmakers with the centrist, Catholic UDEUR headed by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella.
While Mastella expressed support for Sircana, critics said the whole case had been handled poorly and risked undermining public confidence in the government.
EXTORTION PROBE CONTINUES.
Corona was among three people arrested last week while nine others were placed under house arrest, including porn industry manager and film director Riccardo Schicchi.
Lele Mora, a celebrity manager and advisor, was one of six people ordered to remain in Italy.
Corona and Mora are accused of 'hiring out' aspiring models and starlets to businessmen and celebrities for encounters, parties and holidays.
They are also accused of framing a string of VIPs and blackmail or attempted blackmail using compromising photos, in some cases fake or manipulated images.
Corona is alleged to have extorted 50,000 euros from Roma soccer ace Francesco Totti. Inter star Adriano, motorcycling champion Marco Melandri and Agnelli heir and Fiat executive Lapo Elkann were among those who refused to yield to blackmail attempts, prosecutors say.
Investigators said they believed Corona possessed potentially compromising photos involving a host of public figures and that they were searching for this material.
After the media published transcripts of wiretap evidence from the probe, including a conversation between Corona and another photographer about the Sircana photo, MPs called for a law curbing publication of leaked wiretaps and ensuring the full application of Italy's privacy laws.
Such a bill was presented by Minister Mastella in July but has since been languishing in the House while lawmakers deal with more urgent business.
It includes hefty fines for newspapers which publish unauthorised or confidential transcripts of taped phone conversations.
Two of the biggest scandals to hit Italy in recent years were sparked by the publication of secret wiretapping information: a bank takeover one which led to the resignation of former Bank of Italy governor Antonio Fazio and a match-fixing one in the world of soccer.
