Indro Montanelli, the dean of Italian journalism, died 20 years ago at 5.30 pm on 22 July 2001 in the Madonnina clinic in Milan.
"My professional life
is my life, tout court", said the last real attack correspondent on his eightieth birthday.
And it was
just like that.
The President of the Republic also remembers it today
"The memory of Indro Montanelli, twenty years after his death, still arouses intense participation, not only in those who knew him more closely, but also in the many who appreciated his qualities as a chronicler, storyteller, historical popularizer , of a polemicist who did not give up loud tones even at the risk of confusing his admirers ", said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in a statement.
"Indro Montanelli's journalism spanned most of the twentieth century. Starting his activity during the fascist regime, he was a war correspondent and distinguished himself in those years for giving completeness to his work, escaping as much as possible from the tight meshes of propaganda.
Having become a critic of fascism, he was imprisoned in Milan in the last period of the Second World War. Escaped from prison, he reached Switzerland, where he awaited the end of the conflict.
The Republic saw his commitment as a journalist and writer intensify.
It was one of the most prestigious names in the Corriere della Sera.
He founded Il Giornale and then La Voce. He chose new paths whenever he saw, or feared, invasions of the field or limitations of his autonomy space.
The Red Brigades identified him as a target, and the ambush that resulted in his injury was a crime against freedom of information.
He stubbornly refused any homologation, claiming it to his Tuscan character.
Intellectual with inexhaustible energies, writing teacher, intransigent journalist in the defense of professional autonomy, for decades - concludes the president - a prominent personality in Italian culture and in public debate ".