Italy TV directors chosen

Berlusconi has pledged to avoid a conflict of interest

ROME, Italy -- Two of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's political allies have selected the new board of directors for state television -- the main competition for his own private TV network.

Berlusconi has come in for sharp criticism over the issue because his family controls the Mediaset broadcasting company, RAI's only competition.

Those responsible for choosing the board -- the speakers of the upper and lower houses of parliament -- are also both Berlusconi allies.

Traditionally the board is made up of three members representing the governing coalition and two representative of the opposition, and Friday's appointments followed that form.

Those named to RAI's board are a former head of Italy's constitutional court, two business executives, a publisher and the chief organiser of Rome's Holy Year celebrations in 2000.

The centre-left opposition, concerned that the appointments will give Berlusconi's unusually wide control of the nation's media, criticised the choices.

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Leaders on the right welcomed the appointments, saying they were broadly representative of their interests. Berlusconi, who has tried to keep out of the process, did not make any comment.

RAI's three networks and the three private networks in Berlusconi's media empire account for virtually all the major programming on Italian TV.

The new board is made up of Antonio Baldassarre, the former president of the constitutional court, Marco Staderini, a top executive of Lottomatica, which includes Italy's popular weekly lotto game, Ettore Albertoni, culture commissioner in the Milan area, Carmine Donzelli, a publisher, and Luigi Zanda, who organized events in 2000 drawing millions of tourists to Rome for the Holy Year.

Berlusconi has been insisting that he had no hand in the search for a new RAI board, which replaced one whose term ran out a few days ago.

A few weeks ago, speculation that one of the appointees would be a journalist from Berlusconi's publishing group stirred up more concern about a conflict of interest for a premier who is a billionaire businessman with interests in TV, film, insurance, real estate and publishing companies.

In a bid to quell the political storm, parliamentary leaders waited until conflict of interest legislation had gone through its first formal steps in parliament before choosing RAI's new board.

The conflict of interest proposal by the government provides no sanctions and has been harshly criticised by the opposition.

On Thursday, Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, insisted Berlusconi has no designs on RAI.

"To counter the malevolent voices heard all around, I must restate that Premier Berlusconi has not intervened, is not intervening and will not intervene in the RAI case, as is proper," Bonaiuti said.