Sergio Zavoli, dean of journalism in Italy, has died

The journalist, writer and poet was 96 years old and was one of the most representative faces of his profession and Rai. He was responsible for programs such as Tv7, Trial at the stage or investigative reportage such as La notte della Repubblica

(photo: Alberto Roveri / Mondadori Portfolio / Getty Images) He was one of the most important noble fathers of Rai, of which he was first radio commentator, then the first director of the Gr of Radio 1 and finally president from 80 to 86. Sergio Zavoli, who died on August 5 in Rome at the age of 96, is one of the best-known Italian journalists who contributed to narrating Italy from the second post-war period until the 1990s, a long period full of cultural and social changes, political and economic. He was responsible for some programs that made the history of Italian TV as the Process to the stage that, in the 60s, told the Giro d'Italia to fans and non-fans, Tv7, Az, Controcampo or the known television investigations on the facts of the Italian republic like the cycle of 18 episodes, La notte della Repubblica, which described the internship in our country through testimonies and reconstructions.

But Zavoli's life was characterized by a strong political commitment. Always linked to the Socialist Party, especially that of the reformist wing close to Pietro Nenni, he was elected senator from 2001 to 2013, first in the ranks of the left Democrats, then the Olive Tree and finally the Democratic Party. And it is precisely in this last phase that he was chosen as a member of the Rai Supervisory Commission, a fairly stormy period in open conflict with the democratic leaders.

Zavoli it is also compared with the poem , writing the works that have obtained consent of critics and audiences as The shadow, published in 2009, which is an examination of contemporary civil society and all of its distortions and contradictions. Curiosity and eclecticism that were recognized when the University of Rome Tor Vergata) has awarded him honoris causa degree in Publishing, multimedia communication and journalism. At the time, the writer and journalist Edomondo Berselli noted that more of an honour was “a tautology”, since the role of Zavoli in the history of Italian journalism.

the Romagna, was born in Ravenna, but rimini has adopted (in 1972, the council has bestowed the honorary citizenship), was a great friend of another of rimini, the illustrious Federico Fellini . A union celebrated in a documentary, Zavoli says Fellini, released in theatres in 1965. To him, the journalist said: “We told each other about the most disparate things, even in dreams” .