Italian stamp to honour Berlusconi on first anniversary.

Italy is to honour the late three-time former premier and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi with a postage stamp to mark the first anniversary of his death last June aged 86.

The move was announced on Tuesday after the government approved the issuing of a stamp in honour of the controversial figure who dominated public life in Italy for decades.

The initiative followed a proposal from Forza Italia, the centre-right party founded by Berlusconi before the 1994 general election when he burst onto the political scene.

The stamp is a "fitting recognition of a great Italian who served and honoured the Republic in all the roles he held: entrepreneur, sportsman, political leader and statesman," senator Licia Ronzulli and deputy Paolo Emilio Russo, both members of Forza Italia, said in a statement.

Berlusconi is one of more than a dozen figures who will be commemorated with stamps in Italy this year, including radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi on the 150th anniversary of his birth, Saint Thomas Aquinas on the 750th anniversary of his death, and opera composer Giacomo Puccini on the centenary of his death.

News of the Berlusconi stamp comes ahead of a new Netflix docuseries, Il Giovane Berlusconi, set for release on Thursday.