Oh maan, this would be way too long to explain since it involves a lot of stuff.
Anyways it is "Celentano"(popular singer from the 60's-70's) and Prime Minister "Berlusconi".
I'll try to sum things up for you: Berlusconi owns the three major private tv channels in Italy, and the government indirectly controls the three public tv channels. So it's easy for the left to attack him saying "he is a danger for democracy and free press because he just owns it all".
As a matter of fact, 90 % of his journalists are leftist, they explicitly admit they vote for the left and the most important among them are personal friends with the left's top leaders. On top of that, a vast majority of our judges belong to the left parties (in Italy this shocking thing is possible) and have targeted him a lot of times in the past.
Berlusconi's tv channel constantly work against him, they attack him in every possible situations. The comedians make fun of him only (they never target the left), the news are always about how bad he is (those are journalists who get paid by MILLIONS of dollars, btw), while the newspapers are 85 % leftist, either owned by socialist politicians or whose reporters are leftist.
You gotta live here to see the situation, but saying that democracy is being endangered is truly ridiculous.
Anyways this guy here, Celentano, he made a show on Channel One against the Premier. Yet again he was mocked and made fun of by a looong series of leftist politicians, comedians who just make politics, and people known to hate him. The show had a share of 48 %. Paradoxically the show was meant to warn Italy about the power of this cruel blood-thirsty tycoon who could control our minds. Wasn't it a paradox that all this Berlusconi-bashing can go on Channel One in prime time for three weeks? (It was a series).
What is more ridiculous is what follows.
On the first episode, before dozens of millions of people, Celentano (another multibillionaire) attacked Berlusconi labelling him a dictator by showing a Freedom House study where all the countries of the world were ranked from the "most free" to the "partly free" to the "not free".
Bottom of the list was North Korea, if you're curious.
Italy was SHAMEFULLY at the 77th position, under the partly free category.We were preceded by Bulgaria and immediately followed by Mongolia....
People went "Oh man, look at that, we are considered as little free as Mongolia, this is crazy, doesn't feel like we are not free though".
What had happened became clear the day after: Freedom House had ranked Italy 77th not because of Berlusconi owning the televisions, but because some months ago a Congressman (parliament member) from Berlusconi's Party, Mr Jannuzzi, a 76-yer-old man, a very honored man elected for Berlusconi center-right party, had dared criticize some leftist judges and HAD BEEN PUT TO HOUSE ARREST!!!!
Wasn't it just a crazy thing?
We were labeled "partly free" country because a friend of Berlusconi's, a representative from his party, had been jailed by hostile judges he had (legitimately!!!) criticized for their being too much entangled in politics. Hence, an unbelievably rich singer calls all these socialist and communist people (We still have two strong communist parties over here, so when I say communist I reall mean it) and they staged this huge show on CHANNEL ONE, watched by all of us taxpayers, attacking Berlusconi because we were ranked 77th because HE controlled the media.
Now tell me this is NOT ridiculous.
Anyways, it is not becoming a "potential problem" for upcoming elections. Italians have been knowing Berlusconi for years and we perfectly know he doesn't sway over his televisions or journalists minds. He has won and lost elections, as it happens in a normal country. What hasn't changed is our left-wing television.
Polls have shown Celentano's show hasn't moved the voters from their previously-held opinions. In sum, the show you saw was just interviewing Italians that already opposed the government. The reason why 48 % of the people watched it is..uhm..they got really good publicity before it started (publicity given on Berlusconi's tv's of course). I watched it myself, go figure. But all I heard is people saying Celentano is a jerk. Maybe they think differently in Hong Kong
I have followed Swedish politics for a few years as I find it really interesting with all of its popular support and grass roots movements for stuff. I now find that Italian politics are also quite interesting. It paints a picture of a bowl full of pasta, so many twists, turns and never ending story lines that each seems to be able to twist around their fork to suit their own pallate.