Daniele Luttazzi has a stronger claim than most as posterboy for Silvio Berlusconi's “censorship by stealth”. As a television presenter and comic actor who dared to criticise the Italian Prime Minister on his late-night show eight years ago he has been sued and cast out in to the broadcasting cold.

In his first interview with a British newspaper Mr Luttazzi has accused the 72-year-old billionaire of orchestrating a top-down campaign to prevent journalists and comedians from voicing even the slightest degree of dissent on television. “I call it Fascism Lite,” Mr Luttazzi, 48, told The Times.

The comedian was sued for €20 million (£18 million) - one action by Mr Berlusconi, and three by his business empire - after being accused of defamation during an television interview in 2001. After waiting four years for the case to crawl through the courts Mr Luttazzi won. Mr Berlusconi was ordered to pay his costs.

He says that he still remains practically unemployable in a country where the majority of the mainstream media is owned by the powerful subject of his gibes. “I won,” said Mr Luttazzi. “But the damage was done.”

In a country with many political talkshows on prime time television, Mr Luttazzi was unusual for his deliberately provocative style. He earned a reputation for bad-taste comedy and his eagerness to take on religious, sexual, and political taboos that his mainstream rivals would not touch.

Mr Luttazzi claims that Mr Berlusconi's continuing evasion of the questions about his relationship with Noemi Letizia is the culmination of years of creeping restrictions on press freedom.

“Berlusconi is now like Superman but there's no kryptonite,” he said. “The damage has been done and democracy has been corrupted. We are no longer a fully free country.” He believes the ugly aftermath of his fateful 2001 interview with an investigative journalist, Marco Travaglio, was a warning sign of things to come from the Berlusconi regime.

The presenter had invited Mr Travaglio on to his talk show on the state-controlled channel, RaiDue, during the election campaigns to discuss his new book, which examined the birth of Berlusconi's media empire. During the broadcast they discussed alleged Mafia connections of Marcello Dell'Utri, the Sicilian politician who was Mr Berlusconi's right-hand man, and founder of his political party, Forza Italia.

The show was cancelled although the producers said that the decision was made independently. Mr Berlusconi sued him personally. He was also dealt three other lawsuits: €2.5 million lawsuit from Fininvest, Mr Berlusconi's financial holding company; a €2.5 million lawsuit from Mediaset, the commercial television channel founded by Mr Berlusconi and of which he remains the largest shareholder; and another lawsuit for more than €5 million by Forza Italia.

Three months later Mr Berlusconi went on to triumph in the elections, winning his second non-consecutive term as Prime Minister. “Imagine Gordon Brown suing Paul Merton because he didn't like what he was saying on Have I Got News for You!. The problem is the political system. It impinges on two freedoms, my personal freedom to express myself, and that of the public to listen to me.

“That is censorship and it is unaccceptable.”

The presenter notes that Dell'Utri has since been found guilty of tax fraud, false accounting and, pending appeal, complicity in conspiracy with the Sicilian Mafia.

He has been sentenced to more than ten years in jail but has never served time in prison.

Mr Luttazzi cannot conceal his anger. “For me the Bulgarian edict' is still going strong.” He is referring to the Prime Minister's infamous remark during a state visit to Bulgaria in 2002. Singling out Mr Luttazzi, and two other Italian broadcasters, Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro, Mr Berlusconi said: “The use [they] have made of public television, paid with everyone's money, is criminal. I believe that it is a duty of the new management [of state broadcaster, Rai] to prevent this from happening again.”

All three had their shows cancelled, although officials denied that there was any connection to Mr Berlusconi's remarks. They are not alone. In 2003 comedian Sabina Guzzanti had her satirical television show, RaiOt, cancelled after one episode after a defamation lawsuit from Mediaset.

About the same time as Mr Luttazzi's television interview Mr Berlusconi sued The Economist for its cover story in April 2001, with the headline “Why Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy”. He lost. Last year a Milan court threw out the claim.

Mr Luttazzi, who works in fringe theatre, said: “It has been difficult for me.” There is no longer a single satirical programme on Italian TV. He compares the levels of press freedom in Italy to the Fascist period. “They might not kill you these days but they send you into media exile.”

A Berlusconi aide declined to comment on allegations of censorship. He told The Times: “It is enough to look at the newspapers to see that there is freedom to criticise everybody.”

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