Italy's crusading comic Beppe Grillo has bought a house in Switzerland over fears that his anti-corruption blog - the most popular in Italy and among the top 20 worldwide - may be censored or shut down under a new measures being discussed in parliament.
''I've found a peaceful and safe corner, and it's also a pretty place,'' Grillo said of his new Lugano home in an interview with a Swiss paper.
''My blog really risks being censored or closed down, and I want to be ready to leave immediately for a safe country that will allow me to continue,'' he said.
The flap began in November when opposition Democratic Party spokesman Ricardo Franco Levi drew up measures that would have required all Italian blogs to sign up to the Register of Communications Operators (ROC), making them subject to regulations governing printed word crimes.
Blogs that failed to register with ROC would have been reported for clandestine publishing, a crime punishable by up to two years in prison as well as financial penalties.
Levi later backed down on the measures in the wake of widespread protest from bloggers and internet users, who dubbed the draft the ''blog-killer law''.
But Grillo has said that blogs are still not safe, slamming subsequent amendments to the draft by the People of Freedom party's Roberto Cassinelli.
''Many people are advising me to move my blog abroad or to register it as .com, .net or something else that will not be subject to Italian laws like .it. Why should I? Every day it's a new dirty trick,'' he said.
Grillo shot into the public eye in 2007 with his 'V-Day' initiative, in which V stands for the Italian expression corresponding to f*** off. It was directed at the many MPs currently sitting in parliament who have been convicted or are on trial.
But the 60-year-old Grillo has long been a thorn in the side of the powers that be. He has been off the airwaves since 1987 when he made a stab at Bettino Craxi - six years before the late Socialist leader's downfall amid escalating corruption scandals.
In 2005, American magazine Time named Grillo one of its European heroes of the year, praising him for his hard-hitting brand of humour.
