From Friday 5 May to the 27th May, the third edition of the Festival of Journalism – Festival del Giornalismo Verona – dedicated to the world of information returns to Verona and its province. Many topics are to be covered: from environment and sustainability to migration on the Balkan route, from the war in Ukraine to Afghanistan and the condition of women in Iran, gender discrimination in football and the relationship between sport and human rights, organised crime, and the fight against the mafia underworld. The event will also take a look at the future of local information, information regarding the environment, new radio scenarios, and the right to information for all citizens.
The Festival will open on Friday, May 5 at 10 am at the Santa Marta Polo of the University of Veron with a meeting open to students and an award dedicated to Antonio Spadaccino, being presented to the best journalist under 30 of a local newspaper. The presentation will be followed by meetings with Tommaso Ferrari, Councillor for Ecological Transition, Environment and Mobility on “Communicating the environmental crisis: How and why to do it”, and “Towards zero impact”, and Antonio Disi of ENEA and Letizia Palmisano, environmental journalist, and eco blogger.
Two special awards will be dedicated to missing journalists: Antonio Spadaccino e Antonio Megalizzi.
The event will then move to the province with the appointments of the Extra Festival. The first appointment is Wednesday, May 10th in Caprino Veronese at 20.30 with “The disenchanted mountain. Rethinking the future of a territory on a human and environmental scale”. The journalists Manuela Mimosa Ravasio and Anna Sustersic, with the philosopher Manuela Macelloni, will converse with the journalist Riccardo Verzé. Thursday, May 11th at the Teatro Salieri in Legnago at 21.00, will see the reading show “The Genius of Salieri”, curated by Piero Maranghi and Leonardo Piccinini. The third meeting will be in Povegliano Veronese, in Villa Balladoro, Friday, May 12th at 21.00, “Mafie in the Northeast: the duty to inform”. The journalists Gianni Belloni and Luana De Francisco will converse with Pierpaolo Romani, president of Avviso Pubblico; moderated by Luigi Grimaldi.
In the following days there will be a wide range of meetings, round tables and insights on current issues but also on the state and future of information. The festival will end, in its city part, Monday, May 8 at 21 with “The museum of the future”, a meeting with Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, scheduled at the Teatro Nuovo, moderated by journalist Elena Chemello.
The event will then move to the province with the appointments of the Extra Festival, to involve some centers of Verone. First appointment Wednesday, May 10 in Caprino Veronese at 20.30 with “The disenchanted mountain. Rethinking the future of a territory on a human and environmental scale”. The journalists Manuela Mimosa Ravasio and Anna Sustersic, with the philosopher Manuela Macelloni, will speak with the journalist Riccardo Verzé. Thursday, May 11 at the Teatro Salieri in Legnago at 21, will be held the reading-show “The genius of Salieri”, curated by Piero Maranghi and Leonardo Piccinini. Third meeting in Povegliano Veronese, in Villa Balladoro, Friday, May 12 at 21, “Mafie in the Northeast: the duty to inform”. The journalists Gianni Belloni and Luana De Francisco will discuss with Pierpaolo Romani, president of Avviso Pubblico; moderates Luigi Grimaldi.
Saturday, May 13th at 18.30 in Motta di San Bonifacio will see a meeting with the envoy Domenico Quirico, the anthropologist Elena Dak and the journalist Barbara Schiavulli dedicated to “Do not forget Afghanistan”. Sunday, May 14th in Bardolino villa Carrara-Bottagisio at 18.30 will see “The new radio renaissance” with the radio host Sara Zambotti and the radio speaker Massimo Cirri and the moderation of Giorgio Vincenzi. Following this, the festival will return to Verona, Friday, May 26th at 20.30 at the cinema Nuovo San Michele, with the documentary about the United States “stonebreakers”, focused on the theme Black Lives Matters and the destruction of historical monuments of characters symbol of American history. The event will be held by Prof. Stefania Pontrandolfo, professor of Disciplines demoetnoantropologics at the University of Verona, and moderated by the journalist Francesco Bommartini.
The closing of the Journalism Festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 27th at 18:30 at Villa Maria-Casa Sartori 1898 in Negrar, with the meeting “The importance of financial awareness for the citizen of today”. Luciano Canova, economist, essayist and scientific popularizer, and journalists Eleonora Vallin and Stefano Tenedini, journalist and editor of our newspaper will discuss the theme. Moderated by journalist Mario Marchi.
“Our festival is a bottom-up cultural event” – explains Fabiana Bussola, president of the Heraldo Ets Cultural Association – “We think this project is an enriching event for Verona, open to comparing ideas, in front of public discourse based on polarized opinions. Every year, we try to grow and propose something more. The numbers confirm that we are on the right track“. “We want to keep the spotlight on information and the job of the journalist high, but also on one of the issues that we care about as much as the environment” – says Elena Guerra, director of Heraldo magazine – “We will assign a special plaque dedicated to Antonio Spadaccino, who died just a year ago, to a young journalist under 30. A way to celebrate the attention Spadaccino has always had for young people“. Another prize will be named after Antonio Megalizzi, the young journalist killed in an attack in 2018. “He had been a student at the University of Verona working in our radio Fuori Aula Network” – recalls Tiziana Cavallo for the Megalizzi Foundation – born to remember that “Antonio had dedicated his life to the passion for information“.
“Today, more than ever, there is a need for journalism and a Festival whose program starts from the local and connects it with the phenomena of the global world, seizing the opportunities and challenges that globalization entails” – stresses Marta Ugolini, Councillor for Culture of the City of Verona – “Even journalists, as professionals and as people, are called to engage in an open and not risk-free context: so, open doors to real journalism, in Verona and in the province“.
