Berlusconi urges Italians not to pay TV licence after being slammed on shows

LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has urged millions of Italians not to pay their TV license after being slammed on a series of shows.

Berlusconi made his request after watching a TV show on Italian state TV broadcaster RAI called Annozero, with which he has clashed repeatedly, reports the Daily Mail.

Bizarrely, even before the show was aired, the director general of RAI had said he wanted nothing to do with the programme, which ran a series of damning reports on the scandal swirling around Berlusconi.

Previously, Berlusconi called TV news show on one of the few channels he does not own and slammed the programme as a “whorehouse” after it also broadcast details of the sex scandal.

All week a series of statements from the prosecution’s investigations detailing the sleazy sex parties that took place at Berlusconi’s villa at Arcore near Milan have been leaked to the Italian media.

Meanwhile, a panel in the Italian parliament, deciding on whether prosecutors should be allowed to search Berlusconi’s offices in Milan as part of the investigation, ruled that the request must be debated by MPs.

The 74-year-old is currently facing a probe over allegations of sex with an under age prostitute and abuse of power. (ANI)