Berlusconi's attack on a free press?

As all the word knows (we live in a global village, after all), Silvio Berlusconi is a controversial figure. There are those who love him and those who hate him, those who appreciate him and those who don’t. I’ve always tried to be as “objective” as possible regarding to him, but I don’t pretend to have succeeded, because—whether I like it or not—I agree with him on most issues. Let’s say that I generally favor a “dialectical approach” whose result, most of the times, is that I cannot but agree with him on the substance and disagree on the form (Ok, sometimes form is substance, I know ...). Here is an example (regarding Berlusconi’s controversial law curbing the use of wiretaps by police). Adrian Michaels in the Telegraph:

A great number of people working in the Italian judiciary behave incorrectly. Convinced that they will never secure convictions of the rich and powerful, they habitually leak their entire investigations to newspapers, so at least to hang their subjects in the court of public opinion. It is a shameful way to ride over due process, no matter how much it may seem justified.
So I have some sympathy with Silvio Berlusconi’s attempts significantly to tighten up the rules on judicial surveillance, wiretaps and leaks, even if it once again looks like the Italian prime minister is putting the machinery of state to use in the service of protecting his personal interests.

But, Michaels adds (“and it’s a big but”),

Berlusconi’s attack on the journalists who print transcripts of telephone conversations or other such information from judicial sources is completely indefensible.

Well, “indefensible” is perhaps a strong term. What about “embarrassing but understandable?” And it’s a big but.