of 7 August 1990. The law recognizing "private radio broadcasters which do activities of general interest information" was approved in 1990 to recognize the radio broadcasters which had broadcast "own information programmes about political, religious, economical, social, unions related or literary events for not less than nine hours between 7 am and 20 pm" and "extended the number of plants to the 50 per cent of the provinces and the 85 per cent of the Regions". Among with the other entities receiving public funds, Radio Radicale is the only one having a national network and spends over €3.7 million every year just for the technical management, and it is also the only one which dedicates almost all the schedule to broadcast service public programmes. Schedule and programmes The schedule revolves around parliamentary sessions accordingly to an agreement with former Ministry of Communications (now part of Ministry of Economic Development), covering over 60% of sessions of both Houses through the 8-20 time slot. During the residual time, Radio Radicale tries to document also the activities of other institutions (Communal Councils, Court of Audit, High Council of the Judiciary, European Parliament), as well as congress, festivals and major meetings of all political parties, those organized by trade and labour unions, demonstrations, important press conferences, debates and book presentations. News bulletins are broadcast every day and they are built around interviews and reading of news provided by press agencies. Space dedicated to the politicians and parliamentarians in particular is a typical characteristic of RR, tough it is a party branch and so it can not respect the par condicio, and offers a certain balance across the political groups. Politicians often participate in a programme, called Filodiretto (Direct line), where they dialogue with listeners without access limitations but with only a bond of 40 seconds for each call. In recent years these programmes are reduced but the Radio invites a politician every week. An historical programme of Radio Radicale was Conversazione settimanale con Marco Pannella (Weekly conversation with Marco Pannella), aired from 2001 to January 2016. Former director of the Radio, Massimo Bordin, (alternating with Valter Vecellio) interviewed Marco Pannella about themes regarding politics and initiatives of radicals. At midnight there is the reading of front pages of the newspapers of the following day and this programme starts the night schedule, when events not broadcast in the daytime schedule are aired along with recordings