Wiretap backlash in Italy after prince arrested

ROME, June 19 (Reuters) Italy's Justice Minister today called for tougher laws to prevent the media from intruding on people's privacy after newspapers published wiretaps of princes and politicians discussing sex, money and power.

Over the past three days Italians have been enthralled or repulsed by details from the investigation behind last Friday's arrest of Prince Victor Emmanuel, the 69-year-old son of Italy's last king, and more than a dozen other people.

''It's putting people under a microscope all the time, like a a Big Brother. And this is unjust,'' said Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, referring to the sinister leader in George Orwell's novel ''1984''. Mastella said he favoured new legislation to punish media that publish wiretaps.

Industry Minister Pierluigi Bersani said publishing wiretaps was putting some people through a ''public lynching where everything is mixed together -- crimes but also human failings and innocent activity.'' But Paolo Serventi Longhi, head of the national journalists' union, rejected calls for new laws, saying newspapers should honour existing codes of professional ethics while taking care not to muzzle freedom of information.

Prince Victor Emmanuel and a top aide to the former foreign minister became the latest high-profile victims of wiretap publication after being arrested in an investigation into corruption, prostitution and influence peddling.

Investigators say Victor Emmanuel had contacts with Mafia clans and was involved in procuring prostitutes for clients of the casino in Campione d'Italia, an Italian enclave on Lake Lugano near the Swiss border.

Transcripts have revealed phone conversations between the prince and others ranging from insulting remarks about national figures to often salacious details of how those under investigation demanded money and sex in exchange for influence.

Leaked transcripts of wiretaps are not new in Italy, where the law about publication is very lax and fines are low.

Last month, Italian soccer was shaken by the biggest scandal in 20 years when wiretap transcripts published by newspapers triggered an investigation into match-fixing.

Published wiretaps forced central bank chief Antonio Fazio to step down last year over his role in a bank takeover battle.

The Eurispes research institute has estimated that nearly 30 million of Italy's 58 million people may have had their phone calls recorded in the past decade.

Some conversations newspapers have printed, between some of the accused and people not under investigation, were gossip rather than evidence.

''This media lynching is hitting people completely unrelated (to the probe),'' said former centre-right Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, whose spokesman was one of those arrested.

Francesco Borrelli, the judge called out of retirement to investigate Italy's soccer scandal, called publishing some of the transcripts ''savage''.

REUTERS MP PM2241