Furio Colombo (born 1 January 1931) is an Italian journalist and politician, former editor-in-chief of ''

L'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian language, Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, ...

''.

Biography

Journalistic and academic career

Colombo was born in Châtillon, Aosta Valley in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. In the mid-1950s he started working for the Italian National Broadcasting Corporation

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

where he collaborated to the creation of cultural radio and television programs, documentaries and journalistic reportages. In the early 1970s, Colombo taught Theory and Techniques of Media and Radio and Television Language in the newly founded Department of Art, Music and Entertainment at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...

. In the late 1980s Colombo moved to New York where he worked as correspondent from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

for La Stampa and for

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...

, of which he has been a columnist. He wrote for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

and taught journalism at the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. From 1991 to 1994, he was the director of the

Italian Cultural Institute The Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Italian Cultural Institute in English, is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Italian government. It promotes Italian culture and is involved in the teaching of the Italian language. The creat ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. From 2001 to 2005, Colombo has been editor-in-chief of the left-wing newspaper ''

''. According to Marco Travaglio, Colombo left the paper after four years due to the opposition of personalities from the DS Party against the excessive autonomy of Colombo from the party lines. Since 2006 Colombo has been a columnist for ''

Il Fatto Quotidiano ''il Fatto Quotidiano'' (English: "The Daily Fact") is an Italian daily newspaper owned by ''Editoriale Il Fatto SpA'' published in Rome, Italy. It was founded on 23 September 2009 and was edited by Antonio Padellaro until 2015, when Marco Trav ...

''.

Political career

Colombo has been elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 with the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left ( it, Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, t ...

and in 2008 with the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, and to the Senate in 2006 with the

Democrats of the Left The Democrats of the Left ( it, Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. The DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger of th ...

. After the 2008 elections, Colombo became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. From 2011, with the death of Mirko Tremaglia, till the end of the legislature in 2013, Colombo has been the oldest Deputy of the 16th Legislature. On 16 July 2007, with an article published on

, Colombo announced his candidacy for the

secretariat, focusing on a strong criticism against

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

, but on 1 August he gave up his candidacy, just as

Antonio Di Pietro Antonio Di Pietro (; born 2 October 1950) is an Italian politician, lawyer and magistrate. He was a minister in government of Romano Prodi, a Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senator, and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a prosecutor i ...

and

Marco Pannella Marco Pannella (born Giacinto Pannella; 2 May 1930 – 19 May 2016) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was well known in his country for his nonviolence and civil rights' campaigns, like the right to divorce, the right to ab ...

did, due to excessively bureaucratic rules in order to be able to advance his candidacy. On 2 May 2015, in occasion of

's 85th birthday, Colombo joined the

Transnational Radical Party The Transnational Radical Party (TRP), whose official name is Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), is a political association of citizens, members of parliament and members of government of various national and political ...

References

External links

*Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian)
XIIIXVI
legislature. {{DEFAULTSORT:Colombo, Furio 1931 births Living people 20th-century Italian politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Democrats of the Left politicians Democratic Party (Italy) politicians Members of the Senate of the Republic (Italy) Senators of Legislature XV of Italy Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) Deputies of Legislature XIII of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVI of Italy 20th-century Italian journalists 20th-century Italian Jews 21st-century Italian journalists Italian male journalists Italian newspaper editors University of Bologna faculty Columbia University faculty University of California faculty People from Aosta Valley La Repubblica people L'Unità editors 20th-century Italian male writers