Italian journalists protest anti-wiretap law

ROME (Reuters) - Italian journalists rallied on Thursday to protest against a law that curbs police wiretaps and imposes fines on news organizations that publish transcripts, saying it will help criminals and muzzle the press.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a center-right media mogul, says the new rules are needed to protect privacy.

More than 1,000 journalists and other opponents gathered in Rome's central Piazza Navona for the protest organized by the Italian National Press Federation (FNSI). Protests also were held in Milan and about 30 other cities, the union said.

"We're doing everything we can to keep this bad law off the books. This is a law that is dangerous for us and for civil society as well," said FNSI President Roberto Natale.

The protests were supported by opposition parties and by the European Federation of Journalists. The Italian union has called a strike for July 9 in protest.

Opposition parties accuse Berlusconi of trying to cover up corruption with a tailor-made law that follows measures to shield him from prosecution while in office.

Prosecutors say the law hampers their ability to work and the U.S. Justice Department has expressed concern over its effect on joint investigations of organized crime.

The Senate approved the legislation last month. It faces a July 29 vote in the lower house.

Under the draft, magistrates can order wiretaps only if they have serious evidence that a crime has been committed. They would have to be approved by a panel of three judges and would only last up to 75 days. Extensions would be possible only in increments of three days.

Media would be banned from publishing transcripts or summaries. They would be restricted on reporting on an enquiry until preliminary investigations are over, something that can take years in Italy's plodding justice system.

An estimated 120,000 phone lines were intercepted in the course of investigations in Italy last year.

The bill had languished in parliament for months, but the government dusted it off after newspapers printed leaked transcripts from a high-profile graft investigation into public works contracts that has tainted Berlusconi's cabinet.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson and Gabriele Pileri; Editing by Jon Hemming)