"Press Freedom Award - A signal to Europe" to two italian journalists

Reporters Without Borders Austria awards this price since 2001. Its aim is to support journalists who work for democracy and the freedom of information. Last year’s award went to Hungarian journalists. The articles of the winners, Emanuela Zuccalá and Alessia Cerantola, highlight today’s working conditions of Italian journalists. "Alessia Cerontola analyses those difficult conditions, Emanuela Zuccalá chose a parable to point a finger at the abuse of human rights in her country", says Eva Nowotny, member of the jury and president of the Austrian UNESCO commission. "We are all worried by the berlusconisation of the Italian press and by the precarious working conditions of journalists in this country. Can you imagine to write an article for eight euro?”, asked Rubina Möhring, president of Reporters Without Borders Austria during the presentation of the 2012 Press Freedom Award in Vienna. In his laudatio, Domenico Affinito, Vice president of the Italian section of Reporters Without Borders emphasizes: „Italian Journalism is sick, but not yet dead. Conflict of interest, self-censorship, threats of organized crime, low quality of news media, asymmetric distribution of resources in the media – all this is a toxic cocktail for modern democracy. And these are just some of the problems we are facing today. We need to improve our journalism; and for that we have to start with our young journalists. The recognition through this years’ Press Freedom Award to two young Italian journalists is help for our cause.“ Alessia Cerantola works as a freelance journalist and filmmaker. In her award winning piece she describes the dire working conditions of freelancers in Italy. She pays tribute to Pierpaolo Faggiano who committed suicide because of his desperate professional situation more than a year ago. The award winning article was published by the periodical of the “European Journalism Centre” in November 2011 and by the “European Journalism Observatory” of the BBC Academy. Emanuela Zuccalá is a freelance journalist, blogger, author and producer of documentaries. She won the award for her piece on women refugees in Africa, “The Diaries of Women Prisoners in the Desert”. Her article is an exemplary study of people who have been forgotten by the world. Her article has been published by the weekly Io Donna, a supplement of the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Zuccalá works for Io Donna since 2001. The articles are going to be published on December by the quarterly press.freedom.now.