Calabresi tells of 'Cecilia and her passion for Iranians'

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 27 - Mario Calabresi, editor of the media company Chora Media for which Cecilia Sala works, on Friday paid tribute to the dedication of the Italian journalist held on unknown charges in Tehran's Evin Prison and her "passion for Iranians".
    "Cecilia Sala is an extraordinarily courageous journalist, who for two years has been curating the podcast Stories for Chora News, the most followed every day in Italy," said Calabresi, former editor of La Stampa and la Repubblica dailies.
    "She is used to going into the field: she is not a freelancer, but is regularly employed by Chora, she travels with all the protections and entered Iran in agreement with the authorities, in a regular and transparent manner.
    "She is an Italian journalist who was arrested while she was doing her job. At the moment no charges have been formalized".
    The co-founder of Chora Media went on: "Cecilia was in Ukraine, for many weeks at the front, but also in Sudan, and then in Iran, which is her passion.
    "Indeed, Iranian girls and their courage are her passion: she wanted to go back there, to talk to many friends whose stories she told in the book 'L'incendio', which she wrote for Mondadori.
    "She wanted to give voice to these girls who no longer wear the veil, dream of a different life, seek their freedom".
    Cecilia Sala, Calabresi further emphasized, "obtained a regular visa for eight days and began to do her interviews.
    "Three episodes of the podcast have already been released and she had material to make more.
    "Thursday was her last day, she would return to Italy on Friday.
    In the early afternoon, when we expected her to send the episode, nothing happened and her phone remained silent.
    "We didn't know anything until the next morning: we verified that she hadn't taken the return flight and hadn't even checked in.
    "Obviously, with her family and her partner, Daniele Raineri, we notified the Farnesina crisis unit.
    "The embassy was alerted and sent a person to the airport, but there was no sign of Cecilia.
    "Late on Friday morning she was allowed to make a brief phone call to her mother, but she was evidently reading a sheet of paper with the few sentences she could say: when her mother tried to ask her where she was or why she had been arrested, she simply repeated 'I can't'.
    "Since then we have been in daily contact with the Farnesina and Palazzo Chigi, maintaining the pact of silence with the hope that it could allow Cecilia to be released more quickly.
    "Today the Farnesina has made the arrest official because it realized that the news could no longer be kept in check".
    After eight days in Evin prison, "yesterday Cecilia had the opportunity to make a second phone call and called her parents and her partner", while today "she was finally able to receive a visit from the ambassador who brought her clothes, food, books that we hope they will send her. She is in solitary confinement, the situation is very distressing", concluded Calabresi. (ANSA).