Marco Travaglio

Publication/book: La scomparsa dei fatti (2006) Marco Travaglio (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko traˈvaʎʎo]; born 13 October 1964) is an Italian investigative journalist, writer and opinion leader, director of the independent journal Il Fatto Quotidiano. Perry Anderson has called him 'arguably Europe’s greatest journalist.'

Travaglio was born in Turin and earned a degree in history from the University of Turin. In 1992 he began to pursue journalism as a career. He started out writing for Catholic publications such as Il nostro tempo ("Our time"), then worked under the renowned journalist Indro Montanelli for newspapers such as Il Giornale and La Voce and gained the attention of Montanelli himself who once said of him: "No, Travaglio does not kill anyone. With a knife. He uses a more refined and not legally punishable weapon: the archives". Since 2006, Marco Travaglio has been a regular guest in the TV program AnnoZero, hosted by Michele Santoro (also mentioned by Berlusconi in the so-called Bulgarian Edict). Recently, Travaglio has contributed as a columnist to prominent national newspapers and magazines, such as La Repubblica, L'Unità (hosting columns such as "Bananas", "Uliwood Party" and "Zorro") and Micromega. He still contributes to L'espresso writing a column by the name "Signornò'". In September 2009 he contributed to the founding of the independent newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano ("The Daily Fact"). He became editor in chief of the paper in 2015.

Political and judicial events of national importance, from Mani pulite to the troubles of controversial political figure Silvio Berlusconi, have been Travaglio's main area of interest. The journalist gained public attention in 2001, after participating in a TV show on state-owned national channel Raidue called Satyricon and hosted by Daniele Luttazzi. He then introduced his bestseller book L'odore dei soldi ("The Scent of Money", co-authored by Elio Veltri), which investigates the origin of Mr Berlusconi's early fortunes. Berlusconi filed a lawsuit for slander, but since the information was accurate and well documented, he was condemned to pay the legal expenses. The show, aired during the campaign for the Italian general election, was heavily criticized by Berlusconi and his party and labeled by them as a politically motivated, non-objective personal attack. After Mr Berlusconi's victory at the elections, Berlusconi banned Luttazzi (together with Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro, prominent journalists that had criticized Mr Berlusconi's or investigated his history) from state-owned TV shows (Editto Bulgaro), causing a long debate about freedom of information and censorship in Italy.

On 10 May 2008, Marco Travaglio commented on Renato Schifani's election as president of the Senate that one should "simply ask of the second highest office of the state to explain those relationships with those men who have subsequently been condemned for association with the Mafia" on the RAI current affairs talk show television program Che tempo che fa. The statement of Travaglio resulted in fierce negative reactions from Italian politicians, including from the centre left, except for Antonio Di Pietro who said that Travaglio was "merely doing his job". Some called for chief executives at RAI to be dismissed. The political commentator (and future leader) Beppe Grillo supported Travaglio, while Schifani announced he would go to Court and sue Travaglio for slander. Schifani said Travaglio's accusation was based on "inconsistent or manipulated facts, not even worthy of generating suspicions", adding that "someone wants to undermine the dialogue between the government and the opposition."

In 2009, the German Association of Journalists assigned Travaglio its annual award for Freedom of the Press, describing him as a "brave and critical colleague [...] exposing continually the attempts of Italian politicians, especially Silvio Berlusconi, to influence the media to their advantage and to negate critical reports."

Travaglio is a Roman Catholic.

• "International Press Freedom" (Pressefreiheit Preis, 2009)
• "Premiolino" (2010)

Books by Marco Travaglio (usually co-authored with other investigative journalists) include:

• Bravi ragazzi (Italian for Good fellas), published in 2003 and reporting on politicians Cesare Previti and Silvio Berlusconi's alleged (and later confirmed by court's sentence ) corruption of judges
• Lo chiamavano Impunità ("They Call Him Impunity", a humorous reference to the spaghetti western Lo chiamavano Trinità), published in 2003, about the SME-Ariosto inquiry and court trial
• Mani Sporche (Italian for "Dirty Hands") that reports about the years following the national scandal "Mani pulite" (Italian for "Clean Hands")
• Il Bavaglio ("The Gag") mostly about the Italian politicians' plans to limit freedom of speech and the investigative means of Italian Prosecutors investigating political corruption
• Per chi suona la banana ("For Whom the Banana Tolls"; the title is a pun on For Whom the Bell Tolls, with a reference on the banana republic)
• "La scomparsa dei fatti" (2006)
• Italia Anno Zero, Chiarelettere, 2009, ISBN 978-88-6190-051-6 (coauthors: Beatrice Borromeo and Vauro Senesi)
• È Stato la mafia ("Mafia is State"), Chiarelettere, 2014, ISBN 978-88-6190-477-4
• Slurp. Dizionario delle lingue italiane. Lecchini, cortigiani e penne alla bava al servizio dei potenti che ci hanno rovinati ("Slurp. Dictionary of Italian tongues. Ass-lickers, courtiers and penne alla bava serving the powerful who have ruined us"), Chiarelettere, 2015, ISBN 978-88-6190-635-8