Sadly, clicking channel 43 will no longer bring you BBC World News on digital terrestrial TV. Blogs around Italy are aflame with accusations of censorship and outrage that foreign ― and thus presumably independent ― reporting can no longer be seen.

But it appears that the explanation is simpler: the licensing agreement, by which the satellite signal was retransmitted by Mediaset on DDTV, expired on 25 November and has not been renewed. The Beeb is still available by satellite (on Hotbird 6/Astra IL and on Nilesat/Arabsat BADR4), but for those without a satellite dish and receiver, the only way to watch BBC World News now is by internet.

For those who want to continue to watch Jonathan Charles, George Alagiyah, Zeinab Bedawi, Sally Bundock and the team, it is available free on www.livestation.com. That site also carries other English-language stations such as al-Jazeera and Bloomberg, although some require a monthly subscription fee. You can also watch Sky News live at http://news.sky.com/skynews/. And of course all TV via internet needs a good, fast connection.

The operators who field calls on the Economics Ministry free-phone number for DDTV enquiries, however, seem to be using outdated lists, and are at present still wrongly reassuring callers that the Beeb is available. Conspiracy theories, anybody?