http://www.boston.com/dailynews/100/world/Italy_calls_Vatican_radio_offe:.shtml

Italy calls Vatican radio offer to cut transmission 'insufficient'

By Peter W. Mayer, Associated Press, 4/10/2001 22:24

ROME (AP) The government Tuesday called a Vatican Radio offer to reduce transmissions ''absolutely insufficient'' and warned it will pull the plug on broadcasts unless the Vatican complies with Italian laws governing electromagnetic emissions.

It was the latest step in a struggle between Italy and the Vatican over the emissions, which people living near a radio transmission tower outside Rome fear are harmful to their health.

An Italian prosecutor has charged three Vatican officials with damaging the environment, saying Vatican Radio violates strict Italian standards on electromagnetic fields emitted by radio stations and telephone transmitters.

The Vatican says the transmissions are in line with less strict international standards and maintains that its officials are shielded from Italian law under a 1929 pact that established Vatican City as an independent city-state.

At a press conference Tuesday evening, Environment Minister Willer Bordon demanded that Vatican Radio present a timetable for its compliance with the regulations, adopted in 1998. He suggested it should do so within six days.

''We have negotiated until the last (moment) to avoid taking measures we don't want to take,'' Bordon said. ''We want Italian law to be respected but we also don't want to prevent the voice of the pope from reaching all parts of the world.''

Bordon has said he is prepared to order the electric company to cut Vatican radio, which beams Pope John Paul II's words around the world in 40 languages, unless the station complies with the government standards.

Residents near the station's transmitter in the town of Santa Maria di Galeria fear some local leukemia cases may be linked to electromagnetic emissions.

Vatican Radio said Monday it would drop half of its medium wave transmissions starting April 16, calling it a ''goodwill gesture.''

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Tuesday that the Vatican would also ''take into account'' the government regulations.

But Bordon said the offer was ''absolutely insufficient.''

Vatican officials said they could not respond to the timetable demand until they have the results of tests on the impact of the emissions.

At a press conference, Navarro-Valls criticized what he called the government's ''unjustified alarm'' over the issue.

Vatican officials said the issue should be handled by an Italian-Vatican commission, which Navarro-Valls said is to meet next on April 18.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001