Film blocked in Italy during election campaign

The Associated Press, Friday, February 1, 2013, 10:26am (PST)

ROME (AP) — Producers of a documentary that takes a sharply critical view of the political, economic and social trends in Italy in recent decades are protesting they are victims of censorship after the culture ministry blocked the film's Italian debut during the run-up to elections.

"Girlfriend in a Coma" is billed as a documentary on "the decline" of Italy written by Bill Emmott, former editor of the Economist, and Italian journalist Annalisa Piras.

The film was scheduled to be shown Feb. 13 at the MAXXI museum in Rome. The museum, supervised by the culture ministry, said with national elections Feb. 24-25 it is standard practice not to host events during the campaign that have any connection to politics.

The museum said it would be happy to host the showing after the vote.