Città di Urbino

PRESENTATION OF THE “URBINO PRESS AWARD”

Washington – April 18th 2007

Speech of the Mayor of Urbino, Mr Franco Corbucci

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank the Ambassador, Mr Giovanni Castellaneta, who – for the second year in a row– has lent his extraordinary support to the “Urbino Press Award” and who is hosting us again at the Italian Embassy in Washington. I would like to express my personal greetings and the greetings from the whole City of Urbino to all the numerous guests who are here today.

It is a great honor and a great pleasure for me to be in the United States again to speak of the Award that has the name of my town, an acknowledgement that wants to celebrate the precious work achieved by the journalists of this extraordinary Country, people who help us understand the evolution of our modern society.

I waited with curiosity for the outcome of the work of the Scientific Committee, which had the task of selecting the person who would be given the 2007 Edition Award. When I learned the name of the winner – and had the opportunity of reading a brief biography of him – I was amazed. For the second time, the Committee's work has honored the real spirit of the “Urbino Press Award”: we want to celebrate the direct witnesses of our time. We want to honor those who do “the dangerous job”, who stand in the front line to understand what happens around us and, then, tell us earnestly and with objectivity.

Well, the person that on May 9th will receive the “Urbino Press Award” in the Ducal Palace of Urbino, Michael Weisskopf, journalist of TIME magazine, is a perfect example of what it means to be engaged personally, to risk personally, to tell one’s readers what is happening in the “areas of crisis” of the world.

I want to give public thanks to Michael Weisskopf for what he has done, and does, for the good of all of us readers.

Let me conclude my speech by thanking all the people who have worked to take the “Urbino Press Award” up to this point and who have allowed us to be here again to present it, in this wonderful city.

Thank you all.