L'Espresso, 9 July 2010
“Silent today to be able to speak tomorrow”, runs the headline on L’Espresso’s website. The Roman weekly, like the majority of Italian papers today, is on strike to protest the government’s controversial anti-wiretap law. “The web-site will not be updated to observe a day of silence against the “gag-rule,” L’Espresso explains, in several international languages, English included. According to PM Silvio Berlusconi, the bill, forbidding the publication of wire tap conversations before the parties concerned go to trial, aims to safeguard privacy. As the bill is debated in the lower house of parliament, a majority of Italy’s journalists, judges and prosecutors argue that it is a shield for politicians and a smokescreen for their wrongdoings.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.