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Alistair Burnett

The return of Silvio?


This weekend Italians go to the polls to elect a new government (nothing new there you may think given the country has had more than 60 governments, albeit not all as a result of elections since the creation of modern republic from the ruins of Mussolini's fascist dictatorship and the abolition of the monarchy at the end of World War II.)

The World TonightGiven this, you may ask why we are sending our presenter Robin Lustig to cover the election in depth for The World Tonight. A good question which in one sense is easy to answer in two words - .

Controversial is not really doing Mr Berlusconi - who is favourite to return to power this weekend - justice. A former cruise liner crooner who rose to be the country's richest man, a TV mogul, owner of one of Europe's top football teams and two times prime minister, Mr Berlusconi has also been persistently accused of corruption - though never convicted - and some of his closest advisers have been found guilty of bribery as well as collusion with the mafia. Silvio Berlusconi, who's also known as Il Cavaliere, stands out as a leading politician who also controls a large chunk of his country's media. A situation which many other European countries would probably not accept and has led to suggestions that if were not a member of the EU already, it may well have trouble being accepted as a member today.

Understanding the appeal of such a politician in modern Europe is what we will attempt on the programme.

Silvio BerlusconiBut Italy has a wider importance to the rest of Europe too. It's one of the largest countries in the EU and has an economy which is in decline. It adopted the Euro at its inception, but its public finances are in such a state some Italians would like to abandon the currency, which could have a serious impact on the prestige of the new money. Italy also faces a dilemma - in some ways similar to that faced by France - of deciding whether to introduce liberal economic reforms at the risk of jeopardising a quality of life many in the rest of world envy.

In this election, both the main candidates, Mr Berlusconi and his centre-left challenger, , are promising reform. But there is doubt whether they can deliver on those promises and also whether the electorate is really going to decide on these issues when most observers agree this election will really be about one thing - whether or not to return Mr Berlusconi to office.

Robin Lustig will be examining these questions and bringing you the results of the vote. Ahead of the vote he'll be presenting the programme from Milan on Friday and then move on to Rome Monday night, by which time we should know if Il Cavaliere has returned to the prime minister's palace.

Alistair Burnett is editor of the World Tonight

Rod McKenzie

Newsbeat reporting back


A few weeks ago we relaunched Newsbeat's website. We've made a few tweaks along the way - and now it's only fair I report back on how we've done.

Radio 1 logoThe good news is that we've doubled traffic to our site - notching up five million page impressions since relaunch. Most of the comments we've had have been supportive. A few people have asked why we've dropped our reporter picture profiles and our live webcam of the Newsbeat office? The answer is that most people found them both dull - it's the news that's the star - not the journalists making it. So we dropped them.

So what were our star stories online? Entertainment news and music journalism were far and away the best box office hits for us - and thanks to our friends and colleagues at the main , plenty of generous linking to our content spread it further, even to those who are not regular Radio 1 listeners. on Oprah was huge.

Robert PlantOur entertainment reporter Natalie Jamieson made a great video at the Led Zeppelin reunion gig, political reporter Rajini Vaidyanathan crafted a behind-the-scenes film at Downing Street, (which you can watch here) Andy Brownstone produced a great series of journalism on the snow season in Switzerland: from how drunken Brits are to snowboarding safety.

Technology reporter Jim Reed reported how hackers had found a way to get round the , US reporter Sima Kotecha and Maddy Savage brought us original reportage of how there's growing evidence festival fans - yes, she is one - - the lure of good music, strong line-ups and better weather proving more irresistible than Glastonbury - and we reported on slow ticket sales and Jay-Z's controversial headline status there, too.

It's a range of journalism we are proud of. Our reporters have radically changed the way they do their jobs: their brief now is to do video, text and radio pieces. They're loving it and we're living it - in a multi-skilled multi-media New World. Best of all, you're using it - so thanks and keep the feedback coming!

Rod McKenzie is editor of Newsbeat and 1Xtra News

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