70 years of L’Espresso, big party in Rome

More than 1,500 people attended the 70th anniversary celebration of L’Espresso. The weekly magazine celebrated the milestone in Rome, in the halls of Palazzo Brancaccio – Spazio Field, with a day of interviews with politicians and representatives of the world of culture. The community of readers was also able to visit an exhibition of the most iconic covers in the newspaper’s history. During the panels, editor-in-chief Emilio Carelli unveiled one of the novelties coming for next year: the digitization of the complete archive of L’Espresso, which will become usable for students, researchers, journalists and anyone who is passionate about the history of Italy recorded from the pages of the newspaper.

The day of celebrations opened at the Quirinale, where President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella received publisher Donato Ammaturo, editor Carelli and the top management of L’Espresso.

Starting at 2 p.m., several representatives of the government, opposition parties and former prime ministers spoke on the stage at Palazzo Brancaccio. Minister Elisabetta Casellati, who spoke of the premierate as the “mother of all reforms,” Deputy Minister Edoardo Rixi and Undersecretary Alessandro Morelli, with a passage on the Strait Bridge. Also, Matteo Renzi, Massimo D’Alema, Elly Schlein, Achille Occhetto, Francesco Boccia, Alessandra Todde, Francesco Rocca, Eugenio Giani, Roberto Occhiuto, Roberto Gualtieri, Marco Fioravanti, Bernard Dika, Paolo Romano, and Simone Leoni.

Deputy Editor Enrico Bellavia then dialogued with prosecutor Nicola Gratteri. On international justice, however, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese spoke. The list of speakers who took turns on two stages was completed with: Nico Acampora, Bashar Al Awadhi, Laura Silvia Battaglia, Pietro Benassi, Serena Bortone, Andrea Calisi, Navid Carucci, Gino Castaldo, Ferruccio de Bortoli, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Tea Della Pergola, Corrado Formigli, Furio Francini, Alberto Gilardi, Andrea Lupo Lanzara, Pietro Masturzo, Antonluca Matarazzo, Motta and Flavia Padovan.

“It was an important day for the Italian publishing scene – Carelli commented -: L’Espresso, with this celebration, wanted to renew a commitment with its readers: to do journalism that is free, independent and able to tell the reality, without prejudice.”