This thesis provides an overview to a series of reforms undertaken at RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana), the Italian public service broadcasting company between June 1993 and April 1996. The reform process began as a direct result of the collapse of the Christian Democrats and its coalition partners after 45 years of continuous government and was initiated by the centre-left 'Technocrat' government led by the former governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (April 1993 to May 1994); it was also continued by the centre-right Berlusconi government (May 1994 to December 1994) and by the centre-left Dini technocrat government (January 1995 to April 1996). The research aims to focus on two related topics in order to fully explain the broad social, economic and political context within which the reforms took place. Firstly, especial interest wil be given to an historical analysis of public service provision in Italy in the light of the twin pressures coming from the state and market. Historically, these twin pressures have had a detrimental effect on public service broadcasting in Italy. Secondly, the research also focuses on the impact of the reform process on the functioning of public service broadcasting in Italy. It identifies four areas of RAJ's operations which merit special attention: the system of political occupation, the so-called lottizzazione; the internal network system; the devolution of Raitre; and RAI and Fininvest-Mediaset duopoly. This thesis uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including primary and secondary analysis and interviews with key architects of the reform process.

Gli sviluppi tecnologici vissuti nell'ultimo quarto di secolo hanno determinato forti mutamenti non solo nella materialità dell'esistere, ma anche nella dimensione spirituale della persona. L'avvento della cittadinanza digitale ha obbligato ad un ripensamento del catalogo dei diritti e delle forme di esercizio degli stessi. La libertà religiosa, tanto nella sua dimensione individuale quanto in quella associata non solo ha subito l'influenza di tali cambiamenti, ma si è dimostrata in molti casi settore privilegiato per verificare la validità delle nuove forme di governo derivanti dallo sviluppo sempre più massiccio delle tecnologie informatiche. A partire, dunque, da un ripensamento dei rapporti tra diritto e religione sono stati individuati alcuni settori specifici di analisi al cui interno saggiare le nuove forme di governo elettronico, per comprendere le nuove declinazioni del diritto di libertà religiosa nella società digitale. Tali settori sono: la presenza delle confessioni nel sistema della stampa nazionale; il nuovo mondo di Internet e le problematiche connesse alla tutela dei marchi e del sentimento religioso; la presenza delle confessioni religiose nel sistema radio televisivo; la tutela dei dati sensibili religiosi nel nuovo Codice sulla privacy. / Last 25 years, technological developments have determined very important changes both on the material side and on the spiritual one of the people. The introduction of digital citizenship has obliged to rethink the bunch of rights and the way to apply them. The religious freedom, both individually and in association, has suffered the effects of these changes, but moreover has been a preferred sector where testing new governance rules needed to manage the innovations due to constantly increasing presence of information technologies in day by day life. Therefore, starting from a deep rethinking of the relationships between law and religion, some sectors of analysis, where testing new electronic governance rules, has been identified, in order to understand new evolutions of religious freedom rights in the digital society. These sectors are: presence of religious denominations in the national press; Internet world and issues related both to the trademark management and to religious sentiments; presence of religious denominations in radio-TV system; protection of religious sensitive personal data in agreement with the new privacy Code.