German culture minister invites Berlusconi to discuss ProSieben bid

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's culture minister invited Italian media magnate Pier Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday to a meeting to discuss his offer to buy TV group ProSiebenSat.1, and said any bid for the German company should protect journalistic independence.

Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer told Reuters he had invited Berlusconi to the chancellor's office for the meeting, "to discuss his plans".

"A change of ownership at a media group like ProSiebenSat.1 would be far more than business as usual. The potential takeover would influence the media power structure of our country," Weimer said, adding that strong private, independent television groups were important to the country.

"A change in ownership must not lead to a restriction of journalistic independence. Media power is never neutral - whoever buys it bears political responsibility," he added.

A German government source said the government also wanted to ensure that ProSieben's headquarters remained in Germany and jobs were protected.

A spokesperson for the Berlusconi family's MFE-MediaForEurope declined to comment.

Pier Silvio Berlusconi heads the media empire of his late father Silvio Berlusconi, who served as Italy's prime minister in three separate stints from 1994-2011. The elder Berlusconi's critics at the time accused him of using his control over Italian media properties to further his political aims.

MFE-MediaForEurope owns around 30% of ProSieben. It made a cash-and-share bid for the German group in March as part of a push to create a pan-European broadcaster.

That move triggered an all-cash counter-bid by ProSieben's second-largest investor PPF, which owns private TV stations across six Eastern European countries. ProSieben called that counter-bid financially "inadequate", and Berlusconi has said his company may yet raise its bid.

(Reporting by Andreas RinkeAdditional reporting by Elvira Pollina in MilanWriting by Francois MurphyEditing by Peter Graff)