BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s culture minister said on Saturday he had invited Italian media magnate Pier Silvio Berlusconi to a meeting to discuss his company’s bid to buy TV group ProSiebenSat.1, adding the German firm’s journalistic independence must be preserved.
“A change of ownership at a media group like ProSiebenSat.1 would be far more than business as usual. The potential takeover would influence the media power structure of our country,” Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer told Reuters.
Strong private, independent television groups were important to Germany, he said: “A change in ownership must not lead to a restriction of journalistic independence. Media power is never neutral – whoever buys it bears political responsibility.”
A government source and a source from Berlusconi’s company said the men had agreed to hold the meeting after the summer break.
The German government source said the government also wanted to ensure that ProSieben’s headquarters remained in Germany and jobs were protected.
The Berlusconi family’s MFE-MediaForEurope declined to comment.
Pier Silvio Berlusconi heads the media empire of his late father Silvio Berlusconi, who served as Italy’s prime minister in three separate stints from 1994 to 2011. The elder Berlusconi’s critics at the time accused him of using his control over media properties to further his political aims.
MFE-MediaForEurope owns around 30% of ProSieben. It made a cash-and-share bid for the German group in March as part of a push to create a pan-European broadcaster.
That move triggered an all-cash counter-bid by ProSieben’s second-largest investor PPF, which owns private TV stations across six Eastern European countries. ProSieben called that counter-bid financially “inadequate”, and Berlusconi has said his company may yet raise its bid.
(Reporting by Andreas RinkeAdditional reporting by Elvira Pollina in MilanWriting by Francois MurphyEditing by Peter Graff)
