- L'Unità
Infobox Newspaper
name =
type = Dailynewspaper
format =Broadsheet
foundation = 1924
owners = Nuova Iniziativa EditorialeS.p.A.
political =Democratic socialism ,Social democracy ,
Left-wing
headquarters =Rome ,Italy
editor =Concita De Gregorio
website = [http://www.unita.it/ www.unita.it]"l'Unità" is an Italian
left-wing newspaper , originally founded as official newspaper of theItalian Communist Party and today strictly linked to the Italian Democratic Party.History
"L'Unità" was founded by
Antonio Gramsci onFebruary 12 1924 , as the "newspaper of workers and peasants", the official newspaper ofItalian Communist Party (PCI): it was printed inMilan with a circulation of 20,000-30,000. On November 8 of the following year publications were blocked by the Prefect of the city together withItalian Socialist Party 's "Avanti!". After the failed attempt onBenito Mussolini (October 31 1926 ), its publication was completely suppressed. A clandestine edition was resumed on the first day of 1927, with irregular circulation in Milan,Turin ,Rome , and inFrance . Publication was officially resumed after the Allied conquest of Rome onJune 6 1944 , the new editor-in-chief beingCeleste Negarville .After the liberation from the German occupation, in 1945, new local editions were started in Milan,
Genoa and Turin, the latter edited by philosopherLudovico Geymonat . Newspaper's contributors includedDavide Layolo ,Ada Gobetti ,Cesare Pavese ,Italo Calvino ,Elio Vittorini ,Aldo Tortorella andPaolo Spriano . In the same year theFesta de l'Unità was launched in most Italian cities.In 1957 the Genoese, Milanese and Torinese editions were merged into a single edition for northern Italy. The newspaper's editorships were unified in 1962, underMario Alicata , who was succeeded byMaurizio Ferrara in 1966. In 1974 daily circulation of "l'Unità" amounted to 239,000 copies, but this number dropped considerably starting from early 1980s, mostly for the competition with the new, left-oriented, "La Repubblica ": the 100 million copies sold in 1981 decreased to 60, in 1982. In the subsequent year a document published by the newspaper, which accused the DC ministerVincenzo Scotti of being a collaborator ofCamorra 's leaderRaffaele Cutolo , proved to be a false. Editor-in-chiefClaudio Petruccioli resigned and was replaced byEmanuele Macaluso .Massimo D'Alema , future Prime Minister of Italy, was director until July 1990.From 1989 to 1990 the newspaper was accompanied by a satiric weekly magazine, "Cuore" ("Heart"), directed by
Michele Serra . In 1991 the title changed from "Journal of the Italian Communist Party" to "Journal founded by Antonio Gramsci", with a daily circulation of circa 156,000. In 1992-1996 director wasWalter Veltroni , who started periodically accompanying the newspaper with gadgets such as books, videocassettes, "etc.".The newspaper ceased publication for one year, from 2000 (July, 28) to 2001 (March, 28), because of financial troubles. Successively it has been published by
Baldini & Castoldi , a company not officially linked to the party of the Democrats of the Left (and later to its follower,Partito Democratico ): its political position, however, continues to be strongly tied to the party's one.The average daily circulation of the newspaper as of February 2005 was 62,000 copies.
On May 2008
Tiscali founder andSardinia PresidentRenato Soru finalized a deal to become the new newspaper owner. [cite news |language=Italian |title=Editoria, Soru compra l'Unità. Una fondazione gestirà il giornale |url=http://www.repubblica.it/2008/05/sezioni/economia/soru-unita/soru-unita/soru-unita.html |publisher=La Repubblica |accessdate=2008-08-26 |date=2008-05-20 ] One of the first moves made by the new property was the appointment of formerLa Repubblica journalistConcita De Gregorio as new editor-in-chief, replacingAntonio Padellaro . [cite news |language=Italian |title=Concita De Gregorio alla guida dell'Unità |url=http://www.corriere.it/cronache/08_agosto_22/de_gregorio_unita_9f47595c-702d-11dd-9278-00144f02aabc.shtml |publisher=Corriere della Sera |accessdate=2008-08-26 |date=2008-08-22 ]Controversies
"L'Unità" was often accused by former Italian prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi of being a politically biased newspaper, allegedly making a "criminal" use of news against him.Notably, on December 23, 2005 Berlusconi showed in a press conference a 1953 copy of "l'Unità" which headlined
Joseph Stalin 's death.On March 29, 2006, in a personal attempt to demonstrate the factiousness of "
Corriere della Sera ", a popular Italian newspaper which endorsed the centre-left Union in the 2006 general election, he showed that both "l'Unità" and "Corriere" had the same headline in that day, referring to a phrase he pronounced ("Bambini bolliti: Cina contro Berlusconi" — "Boiled children: China against Berlusconi").References
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