ROME - "Fifty years after the ruling of the US Supreme Court of the United States - by Judge Black in 1971, who, speaking of the Pentagon papers related to American politics in Vietnam, recalled the first American amendment on freedom of speech - freedom of information must be defended. First and foremost, citizens must be protagonists. It is thanks to it that a conscious and freely critical opinion can be formed. Journalists, for the professionalism and deontology that characterizes their function, must act with independence and rigor in nurturing credibility and trust in the fulfilment of their role of serving the ruled, and not the rulers."

 President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella said this during the recent traditional ceremony at Quirinale Palace for the delivery of the “Ventaglio” (fan), donated by the Italian Parliamentary Press. 

 The head of state added – "Publishers who have the demanding task of balancing their accounts and know how to bet on a vital sector of democracy, are entitled to receive concrete attention from the institutions."

 The Italian President received the praise and thanks of the Foreign Press Association in Italy too, represented at the ceremony with a delegation of its board of directors, composed of the association’s president, American Patricia Thomas; vice president, Israeli Yossi Bar; the managing director of the Milan office, American Andrew Spannaus; and by the freelancers’ representative, Italian Gianfranco Nitti (correspondent for Finnish media). 

 President Mattarella wished to sign a copy of the regulations of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, a text that is now part of historical documents in the Association's archive.

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