Murdoch and Berlusconi feud bursts into the open

The nine-month feud between rival media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi has broken into the open with the decision by News Corp to sue two of the Italian prime minister's firms. Murdoch claims that RTI and Publitalia - the TV and advertising arms of Berlusconi's Mediaset empire - have refused to accept advertising for Sky Italia, News Corp's satellite broadcasting wing in the country.

The dispute between the pair began last December when Berlusconi's government decided to double the VAT levied on Sky Italia to 20 per cent. As a result, Murdoch papers across the world have set upon the embattled Italian premier with relish, documenting the many charges of sexual and financial skullduggery against him.

Berlusconi's current personal woes began in May when his long-suffering wife Veronica Lario filed for divorce, saying: "I cannot stay with a man who frequents minors". Since then, Murdoch's London Times and New York Post have hardly let go.

Page Six, the Post's legendary gossip column, was the first to suggest - on May 6 - that Berlusconi was actually the father of Noemi Letizia, the 18-year-old model whose friendship with 'Papa' Berlusconi proved the last straw for Lario.

The Times has been among the first to report on the photographs taken of Berlusconi's villa by snapper Antonello Zappadu which showed topless women and naked men cavorting around the pool. It has covered every aspect of the revelations by callgirl Patrizia D'Addario and recently ran an opinion piece by Cambridge academic Mary Beard comparing Berlusconi to the Roman emperor Tiberius: "Tales of Tiberius's sexual immorality hinted at something even more rotten at the heart of his political regime," she wrote. "Here too the comparisons with Mr Berlusconi are striking..."

Murdoch's campaign hasn't been confined to his newspapers. Sky Italia raided Mediaset for one of their star actors, and broadcast a film called Killing Silvio based on a fictitious kidnapping attempt on the PM.

The two men were once business partners - when Murdoch launched satellite broadcaster Sky Italia in 2002 he received help from his rival – but the competition between them to control Italy’s pay-TV market has put paid to that.

Berlusconi may feel that his rival has unfairly used his media empire to attack him, but he cannot complain too plaintively, having employed his own considerable media muscle in Italy to deal with opponents. Italian presenter and comedian Daniele Luttazzi was sued for £18m by Berlusconi in 2001, accused of defamation after discussing links between the businessman and the Mafia. He remains practically unemployable in his home country. ·