Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister and billionaire media mogul, lashed out yesterday at Rupert Murdoch, accusing his business rival of using the Times of London to launch a series of personal attacks.
In an interview on Canale 5, one of the Mediaset channels he owns, the Italian prime minister was clearly stung by an editorial and articles in the Times on his relationship with an 18-year-old would-be model.
Mr Berlusconi's government is fighting back ag-ainst a flood of disparaging articles published in several influential European publications, which it sees as seriously damaging to Italy before the G8 summit of large industrialised nations it will host next month.
The 72-year-old prime minister put a commercial spin on the saga, claiming that Mr Murdoch's News Corp was responding to his government's decision last December to double the amount of VAT paid by the group's Sky Italia network.
"I don't mean to be nasty but unfortunately with the episode on VAT for Sky there was a breakdown in relations with the Sky group and with Murdoch's group, which has published a series of very critical articles attacking me," Mr Berlusconi said.
On Wednesday evening, Mr Berlusconi also pointed a finger at Mr Murdoch when interviewed on Porta a Porta, a sympathetic news show on Rai, the state broadcaster.
Headlined "The Clown's Mask Slips", the Times on Monday called Mr Berlusconi a "chauvinist buffoon who cavorted with young women and abused his position by offering them political positions while treating the Italian public with utter contempt".
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