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La Repubblica celebrates the Italian government's "about-turn on the gag law". The centre-left daily has been campaigning for months against the draft law on wiretapping, designed to ban the publication of conversation transcripts. Confronted by opposition from the "legalist" fringe of ruling Pdl (People of Liberty), the government has now presented a watered down text, leaving to judges the authority to "filter" sensitive evidence that cannot be published. Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has himself been the target of embarassing wiretaps, did not hide his frustration: "Italians still can't talk freely on the telephone", he complained.
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