Bruno Vespa


Bruno Paolo Vespa is an Italian television and newspaper journalist. A former director of the Italian state-owned TV channel Rai 1's news programme TG1, Vespa is the founding host of the programme Porta a Porta, which has been broadcast without interruption on RAI channels since 1996.
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Biography

Early life

Vespa was born in L'Aquila, Abruzzo. He is married to Augusta Iannini, who is a judge.

Journalist career

Vespa began working with the local press in his native Abruzzo at a relatively young age, authoring sports articles for the L'Aquila branch of the newspaper Il Tempo when he was sixteen years old.
In 1962, he became a radio announcer on RAI broadcasts and, after obtaining his LL.B. in 1968, began hosting the daily newscast Telegiornale RAI.
During the 1970s and 1980s, he undertook several controversial and ground-breaking projects, mainly as a foreign correspondent for RAI, interviewing many soon-to-be-influential personalities of the decades.
In 1977 he co-hosted, with Arrigo Petacco, the news programme Tam Tam, moving the following year to a different format, precursor to that of Porta a Porta, where up-and-coming personalities and current events were discussed in front of a live studio audience, which participated to the exchange through Q&A sessions.
In June 1984, he was named "official commentator" for the live, televised broadcast of the state funeral for Enrico Berlinguer, who had been the leader of the Italian Communist Party. During the broadcast, he erroneously announced that Pietro Valpreda had been found guilty of the Piazza Fontana bombing, whereas he was a mere suspect, at the time—a mistake for which he publicly apologised on several occasions.
Between 1989 and 1992, while he was the head newscaster for the RAI news programme TG1, he came under attack for publicly declaring that he considered the ruling party Christian Democracy his "editorial sounding board"; because RAI stations are state-owned and publicly funded, they are expected to be unbiased, which Vespa's words indicated not to be the case.
On 11 January 1991, the RAI aired the interview to Saddam Hussein and Vespa become the unique Italian journalist to have interviewed the Iraqi leader. In August 1990, when the Gulf War erupted, he supported the armed intervention in a much-criticised editorial that concluded that "War has been brought forth by the international community. And if we want to be members of that club, we must pay our dues."
Since 1996, Vespa has been at the helm of the news programme Porta a Porta, where much of Italy's political debate takes place, so much so that it is sometimes sarcastically referred to as "the third house" of the Parliament of Italy. In 2000, his wife Augusta Iannini definitively closed the inquiry conducted in 1992–1993 by the Italian Public Prosecutor of Palmi, Agostino Cordova, on the relations between mafia and the Italian Freemasonry. In 1994, Cordova was transferred to Naples, and the inquiry had been moved to the Procura della Repubblica of Rome, where it didn't make any progress for the following six years.
On 3 April 2006, Vespa moderated the second televised debate between then-Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and the leader of the centre-left coalition Romano Prodi. In the same year, Vespa found himself at the centre of a political scandal after a telephone conversation he had with Salvatore Sottile, spokesperson for politician Gianfranco Fini, concerning an upcoming episode of Porta a Porta. During the conversation, Vespa indicated that he would "custom-tailor" the program to suit Fini's needs, requesting, in fact, that the politician's aide select the chosen adversary for the scheduled face-to-face. Since the programme publicly prided itself on creating an unbiased turf for political confrontations, Vespa's integrity was called into question, going as far as to be discredited, due to his perceived "servitude" towards right-wing politicians, especially Berlusconi, and a tendency of asking softball questions on most of his shows. This has led to some in the Italian media establishment calling Vespa a "regime servant", most famously by now-deceased journalist Giorgio Bocca.
In February 2012, a photo of Italian troops who were killing Slovene civilians was shown by the host Vespa on TV as if it were the other way round. When historian Alessandra Kersevan, who was a guest, pointed it out to Vespa that it is Slovenes in the photo who were killed and not vice versa, he did not apologise. A diplomatic protest followed.
Vespa is credited with having a position of strong allegiance towards Silvio Berlusconi.
He received the America Award of the Italy–USA Foundation in 2018.

Awards

Published works

All Vespa's books were published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.Uno stadio per Tommaso Fattori Abruzzo aperto A sessant'anni dalla rivoluzione d'ottobre. Speciale TG1 ...E anche Leone votò Pertini. Cronaca di un settennato incompiuto, di una crisi e di una elezione presidenziale Flash 79 Visita di sua santità Giovanni Paolo II al traforo del Gran Sasso Intervista sul socialismo in Europa Flash 1980 Italia/Libano. Storia di una spedizione di pace attraverso le testimonianze di corrispondenti giornalistici Ping pong Marsica 1915 Abruzzo Abruzzi Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Da un secolo all'altro Paesi del Gran Sasso Veneto. La rinascita Telecamera con vista. Da Valpreda a Di Pietro, 25 anni di storia italiana nei retroscena del Telegiornale Il cambio. Uomini e retroscena della nuova repubblica Il duello. Chi vincerà nello scontro finale Il duello. Storia dello scontro finale La svolta. Il pendolo del potere da destra a sinistra Il Papa eremita. Celestino V e la perdonanza all'Aquila La sfida. Dal patto alla crisi e oltre La corsa. Dopo D'Alema a palazzo Chigi chi salirà al Quirinale? La corsa. La lunga strada del presidente Ciampi Dieci anni che hanno sconvolto l'Italia. 1989-2000 Il superpresidente. Che cosa cambia in Italia con Ciampi al Quirinale Scontro finale. Chi vincerà l'ultimo duello Scontro finale. Ultimo atto Scontro finale. Chi vincera l'ultimo duello Verdi e l'Arena La scossa. Il cambiamento italiano nel mondo che trema L'opera, il mito. 80 anni di spettacoli all'Arena di Verona Rai, la grande guerra. 1962-2002. Quarant'anni di battaglie a Viale Mazzini La Grande Muraglia. L'Italia di Berlusconi, l'Italia dei girotondi Il Cavaliere e il Professore. La scommessa di Berlusconi, il ritorno di Prodi Cinquant'anni. Il miracolo del Friuli. 1953-2003 premio del lavoro e del progresso economico Storia d'Italia da Mussolini a Berlusconi. 1943: l'arresto del duce, 2005: la sfida di Prodi Vincitori e vinti. Le stagioni dell'odio. Dalle leggi razziali a Prodi e Berlusconi La sfida cinese L'Italia spezzata. Un paese a metà tra Prodi e Berlusconi L'amore e il potere. Da Rachele a Veronica, un secolo di storia italiana Viaggio in un'Italia diversa Italiani voltagabbana. Dalla prima guerra mondiale alla Terza Repubblica Donne d'Italia. Da Cleopatra a Maria Elena Boschi, storia del potere femminile
  • ''Perché l’Italia amò Mussolini''