Berlusconi looks to the courts for satisfaction

One way of silencing your critics is to sue them and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is doing just that.

In his sights is the left leaning Italian paper La Repubblica which has been scrutinising his seemingly sleazy private life starting this spring when it emerged that he had attended the 18th birthday party of a model in Naples, giving her with an diamond necklace.

There has been much speculation about his relationship with this girl,not helped by his wife asking for a divorce and reports of prostitutes and sex parties.

Of course Berlusconi's right wing media empire in Italy may be trying to discredit a rival organisation.

However the Italian PM was particularly irked by the paper's 10 questions which it has been asking him to answer since mid May.

La Repubblica’s editor, Ezio Mauro, said: ‘This is the first time in the memory of a free country that a newspaper has been taken to court for simply asking questions.’