Michele Santoro (born 2 July 1951) is an Italian journalist, and television host and presenter. He also served till October 2005 as Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy with the United in the Olive Tree list, part of the Socialist Group and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, being a substitute for the Committee on Culture and Education, a member of the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and a substitute for the Delegation to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee. Education and career Santoro was born in Salerno. A graduate in Philosophy, he made a successful debut in the Italian media as editor-in-chief on the regional newspaper La Voce della Campania ("Voice of Campania") and collaborating with some other national newspapers and magazines like Il Mattino, L'Unità and Epoca. Before being hired by RAI, he had had some experience with a number of radio stations. He started his RAI career in TG3, the Rai Tre news division, first as a foreign correspondent, then creating and producing TV specials and weekly TV magazines, and finally working as chief culture correspondent, again for TG3. News shows Santoro's popularity was essentially based on being the author and anchorman for TV journalism broadcasts like Samarcanda, Il rosso e il nero and Temporeale, all strongly left wing oriented, the broadcasts took place during a period of political turmoil in Italy (see Tangentopoli). These often involved debates with politicians, along with ground-breaking reports and questions from the audience. Santoro's shows were seen as places where the Italian people confronted their politicians, often perceived to be corrupt or inept. His shows have always been criticized for the leftism and lack of impartiality like in the last years with attacks against Berlusconi and other right wing Italian MPs. Santoro left RAI in 1996, because of disagreements with the public television's direction, and briefly worked in Silvio Berlusconi's networks; he left Mediaset because of Berlusconi's continuing political role that he felt to be in conflict with his influence as the country's main media entrepreneur. After his return, he led two shows, Circus, on Rai Uno, and Sciuscià, on Rai Due. The latter was often made up of a series of reportages, narrated in movie style. In recent years he has been continually accused of partisanship by the right-wing coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, whose family holding company controls Mediaset,