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Italy's largest electric company pulled the plug on two left-wing radio stations the morning of U.S President George W. Bush's visit to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
The outage—described as "strange maintenance work" by Enel, Italy's 60 percent state-owned utility—forced Radio Cittą Aperta and Radio Onda Rossa off the air as they were preparing to broadcast extensive coverage of street protests against the president's visit.
"The stations lost electricity for four hours, all the morning, during several 'actions' of the civil disobedience movement," Francesco Diasio told MediaChannel by email. Diasio, managing director of Amisnet, a community radio agency supporting several Italian radio stations, was working with Radio Cittą Aperta (Open City Radio) and Radio Onda Rossa (Red Wave Radio), in concert with several other radio networks in Italy, to broadcast up-to-the-minute reports on the Rome protests.
A spokesman for Enel declined to comment on the Monte Cavo outage.
- Timothy Karr, "Plug Pulled on Rome Radio Stations Covering Bush Protests," MediaChannel.org june 4, 2004
posted June 08, 2004 in politics, print. 2000