Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and media tycoon, narrowly escaped condemnation by the European parliament on Wednesday when MEPs rejected a motion deploring a lack of media freedom in Italy.

By 338 votes to 335 with 13 abstentions, Mr Berlusconi’s Italian supporters and other centre-right MEPs threw out a proposal for a European Commission law to protect media pluralism and crack down on concentration of media ownership.