ROME — Media associations ranging from the Italian Press Club (FNSI) to Articolo21 will gather on the capital’s Piazza Santi Apostoli this Friday to increase public awareness on the civil war taking place in Syria as well as to ask for a ceasefire in the cities of Aleppo and Manbij.

 The secretary-general for FNSI Raffaele Lorusso gave further information in a press release on Thursday morning, saying that “FNSI has agreed to join the sit-in tomorrow because we think it will offer us an excellent opportunity to turn the spotlight on conditions for journalists in Syria, a country that tops the lists for deaths of media personnel, and to draw the attention of institutions both nationally and internationally on this untenable situation.”

 Lorusso continues, “these are the same reasons that have brought Italian journalists to organise protests in front of the Turkish, Egyptian and Iranian embassies in the past few months and to make their voices heard in media syndicates across the world.

 "We are firmly convinced of our duty to speak up against the denial of human rights wherever it might be taking place. That’s the reason why FNSI is so bent on securing the ceasefire and making sure that people give humanitarian projects in Syria their due respect.”

  Syrian writer Shady Hamadi will be among those present at the sit-in.

 The protest will also see the likes of Amnesty International Italy, the Community of St Egidio, Italians for Darfur and the UN programme Unicef. 

lej