MILAN BRIEFING February 2005

News this month

Hard to fight

Controversy swirled when Clementina Forleo, a Milan judge, acquitted three north African men of terrorism charges on January 24th. Politicians of all stripes spoke out against the ruling, with several newspapers lining up behind them. Gianfranco Fini, the deputy premier and foreign minister, described feeling “anger and incredulity” over what he denounced as a “distortion of the reality before the entire world.” Milan prosecutors have begun an appeal.

In court, phone transcripts allegedly found the men planning to recruit suicide bombers to send to Iraq, and talking of funding the insurgency there. Ms Forleo said these were “guerrilla” activities, but not necessarily terrorism. She sentenced Bouyahia Maher and Ali Ben Sassi to three months in jail, and Mohammed Daki, who has been linked to the September 11th attacks, to 22 months for trading forged documents. He was released for having already served the term. Two others, Dirissi Noureddine and Kamel Hamraoui, were referred to another jurisdiction on related charges. Italy has arrested dozens of people on international-terrorism charges since December 2001 (when the crime was defined), but few have been convicted. The law makes prosecution difficult, partly because secret-service intelligence is not admissible evidence.

Wit's end

Commuters complain that trains are dilapidated, dirty and overcrowded, often arriving late if at all. Service to some secondary stations has also been cut. Fed up with years of poor service, some of the angrier commuters resorted to protest in January, blocking train-tracks on lines running to Milan. In February, consumer groups and unions backed a disobedience campaign that involves refusing to buy tickets or to show them when asked. Bruno Ferrante, the Milan prefect, said that such exasperation was understandable, but stressed that blocking trains is against the law.

Lights out

Milan's 250,000 smokers seem reconciled with a new nation-wide ban on smoking in public spaces, which went into effect on January 10th. They now dutifully tramp outside to shiver as they puff. Italy now joins Norway and Ireland in imposing no-smoking measures for all bars, restaurants and offices. Smoking is now allowed only in private homes, special ventilated smoking rooms and outside. The fine for illicit smoking is €275—double if committed near a pregnant woman or a child. Restaurant and bar managers also face fines if they do not enforce the law. Milan's hospital San Paolo has unveiled plans for a new service to help smokers kick the habit.

Meanwhile, some of Italy’s roughly 13m smokers are fuming. A new association, Io Fumo (I Smoke), is seeking a referendum to appeal the law, which it decries as a threat to civil liberties. Some bar and restaurant owners say the new law may hurt business, but this has not materialised in other cities, such as New York, which have enacted similar bans.

Trying to clean up

Hoping to ease air pollution, Milan imposed traffic limits in January and February. For 12 hours on a series of Thursdays, driving privileges alternated between cars with odd- and even-numbered license plates. The city also imposed a number of car-free Sundays, freeing some locals to bike or roller-blade on normally clogged and noisy streets.

Dario Fo, a Milan playwright and a Nobel laureate for literature, together with his wife, the actress Franca Rame, set up an anti-smog committee aiming to force local authorities into action. Domenico Zampaglione, the city politician responsible for environmental issues, conceded that Milan lies within one of the world's five-most polluted industrial regions, but argued that this is inevitable given the area's population density and nearby manufacturing activity.

Too hip for squares

In February, the city of Milan banned a billboard depicting a nearly all-female version of the Last Supper, after a local advertising watchdog argued that it was potentially offensive. The ad campaign by Marithé and François Girbaud, a French fashion house, features female models in a chic take on Leonardo Da Vinci’s 15th-century fresco. A lone, bare-chested male model sits provocatively on the lap of one of the women.

The fashion house said that it had been inspired by Dan Brown’s successful thriller, “The Da Vinci Code”, and had meant no offence. The ad campaign, which was designed to be a tribute to women and their role in society, had run for weeks in Paris and New York without controversy. But Milan, which houses the original Da Vinci fresco, is less resistant to the Vatican's influence. The Istituto di Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria, which evaluates advertisements for impropriety, has argued that exploiting theological symbols for commercial ends inevitably chafes “at least part of the population”.

Catch if you can

February 2005

René Burri

Until April 6th 2005

René Burri, a Swiss photographer, is the man behind the image of Che Guevera that is plastered on posters and T-shirts all over the world. Born in Zurich in 1933, Mr Burri is admired for his portraits of famous artists, such as Picasso (pictured), Giacometti and Le Corbusier, as well as his documentary work for Magnum. This big retrospective of his work includes some 200 photos, taken in the second half of the 20th century. It includes many vintage prints from Mr Burri’s personal archives.

Palazzo dell’Arengario, Piazza Duomo. Open: Tues-Sun 9.30am-10pm. Closed Monday. Tickets: €6.