Berlusconi TV channel secretly films a judge

Rome: Italy's judiciary and opposition parties have reacted furiously after a television channel owned by Silvio Berlusconi secretly filmed a judge who had ruled against him.

The Italian prime minister's Canale 5 aired footage of Judge Raimondo Mesiano taking a walk, smoking and having a shave at a barber shop. It came a week after he ordered Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest to pay 750 million euros (Dh4 billion) in damages to a business rival.

The judge was also shown sitting on a park bench wearing distinctive turquoise socks and white shoes.

Sinister

Calling such behaviour "eccentric", the journalist who narrated the item described the judge smoking his "umpteenth" cigarette and said his socks were "strange".

The covert filming was condemned as sinister and intrusive by civil rights advocates and lawyers. They called it an unprecedented violation of the privacy of a member of the judiciary.

There was no suggestion that the judge had done anything improper in his handling of the Fininvest case and the filming instead appeared to be an attempt simply to belittle him.

Mediaset, which owns Canale 5, claimed that airing the footage was justified because the judge had "acquired national and international notoriety" with his ruling. But the National Association of Magistrates threatened a nationwide strike in protest.

The union, which is already locked in a battle with Berlusconi over his plans to reform the legal system, declared a "state of protest" against the government. It accused the prime minister of fostering a "climate of constant tension".