Not content with trying to restrict the newspapers he doesn't control, Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is now attempting to interfere with the freedom of bloggers and the users of social networking sites.

His government wants to extend a provision within its proposed media and wiretapping law - which requires newspapers or anyone "responsible for informative websites" to publish corrections - by requiring Italians who post on the net to rectify "incorrect facts" by publishing corrections within 48 hours of receiving a complaint.

Any failure to abide by the law would result in a fine on the offending author or publisher of up to €25,000 (£20,800). It also requires bloggers to register with a legal authority.

The planned law has already provoked an outcry among journalists. It spawned this video, "no alla legge bavaglio" (No to the gag law). And it also prompted a "black-out" by the Italian press on 8 July organised by the press union, FNSI.

One of its members, Olivier Basille, said: "This is not just an attempt to gag bloggers and actually all journalists, but more widely it is about stopping the investigation of corruption and organised crime."

Hoping that the European Union might bring pressure to bear on Rome, Reporters Without Borders has written to its president, Herman Van Rompuy.

Sources: The Inquirer/EUObserver/GlobalVoices/Editors' weblog