A controversial ban on political talk shows in the run-up to this month's regional elections was overturned for commercial TV Friday. A regional court (TAR) in Lazio upheld an appeal from Sky and Telecom Italia Media, parent company of Italy's fourth commercial TV company La7. The one-month ban, in force until the March 28-29 vote, was hotly contested by the centre-left opposition, talk show hosts, and others who depicted it as a gag order. Italy's broadcasting watchdog Agcom ordered the ban in compliance with equal-time rules, saying talk shows should be replaced by all-party debates. Sky welcomed Friday's ruling as "restoring freedom" to the media. There was no early word from Mediaset, the three-channel network owned by Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Italian state broadcaster RAI, whose parliamentary watchdog had issued a norm mirroring Agcom's, called a board meeting Monday to discuss the impact of the ruling. The largest opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD), said "TAR's ruling is a clear thumbs down for the gag order imposed by the right-wing members of the RAI watchdog". PD media spokesman Paolo Gentiloni said the norm was not a proper application of Italy equal-time law which, he argued, says talk shows should not be subjected to the same restrictive regulations as political debates. The norm was also against the constitutional right to freedom of information, he said. Urging RAI to bring back its popular talk shows, he said "silence on the part of public TV alone would be scandalous". Michele Santoro, host of a top-rated show sometimes accused of left-wing bias, said "the castle of illegality is starting to be dismantled". "Now we'll have to wait and see the ruling in writing to see how far it bears, albeit indirectly, on the RAI watchdog's norm". photo: Santoro and Bruno Vespa, host of RAI's most popular talk show, protesting ban March 2