The government of Romano Prodi, who we were led to believe would role back the counless instances of anti-democratic legislation introduced by Berlusconi, have set their sights on regulating the internet in Italy.

A new law, devised by former journalist and long-time Prodi collaborator Ricardo Franco Levi, supposedly has major newspapers and publishers in mind – requiring internet sites that publish information to register with a new authority. Sites would then have to follow legislation that currently covers only the printed press – i.e they would have to have a qualified editor, pay a stamp duty annually, and be subject to harsh penalties should they be found guilty of publishing misleading information.

The proposed law, in its current form, seems though to be easily applicable to anyone who has a website that is deemed by the authority to fall into their ‘publisher’ category. The result will therefore be that the authority (appointed by the government) will have a bureaucratic means of shutting down thousands of sites.

Should the law pass, bloggers will be put in the position where they will have to work out whether they’re publishing or merely shooting the breeze. They’ll have to decide whether their postings vaguely approach journalism (an experience most published journalists in Italy could do with), or remain firmly in the realm of personal musings. Citizen journalism, in other words, is out the window.

Of course, the likelihood of any widespread implementation is both unlikely and technically nigh-on impossible to implement. What it would do though is put the onus on site owners to register themselves with the authority, or face sanction should they be found in breach of the rules. It doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to work out that hugely popular sites that publish material critical of the government or other power blocks within society will find themselves treading thin ice.

It’s presumably just a conincidence that this proposed law comes through scarcely a month after blogger Beppe Grillo brought thousands of people onto the streets to protest against a corrupt political class.

And so, when the elections come in the spring (which they surely will, if not sooner), under the current situation voters will get to choose between a leader who seems to believe that news & politics should only be discussed in public by politically approved voices, and Silvio Berlusconi.