Cavalieri ROBERTO SAVIO
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Member of the Board of Patrons
Knighted in 2021 by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Roberto Savio is a journalist, communication expert, political commentator, activist for social and climate justice as well as an advocate of global governance. He has spent most of his career with Inter Press Service (IPS), the news agency which he co-founded. Savio studied Economics at the University of Parma, followed by post-graduate courses in Development Economics under Gunnar Myrdal, History of Art and International Law in Rome.
Roberto Savio’s career included the role of Director for News Services for Latin America with Radiotelevisione italiana -- the Italian national public broadcasting company. He received a number of awards for TV documentaries, including the Saint-Vincent Award for Journalism. “Giving a voice to the voiceless” under Savio's leadership the IPS offered communication services to improve South–South cooperation and South-North exchanges and carried out projects with international partners to open up communication channels to all social sectors. Guided by Savio, IPS won the Population Institute’s “most conscientious news service” award nine times in the 1990s. Savio is President Emeritus of IPS and Chairman of the IPS Board of Trustees. After stepping down as Director-General of IPS, Roberto Savio has continued his interest in “alternative” communication and information, founding Other News as an international nongovernmental association of people concerned about the decline of the information media. He helped launch the National Information Systems Network for Latin America and the Caribbean, the UNESCO-sponsored Agencia Latinoamericana de Servicios Especiales de Informacion (ALASEI) and the Women’s Feature Service with headquarters in New Delhi. He also founded the Technological Information Promotion System, a major U.N. project to implement and foster technological and economic cooperation among developing countries, and he developed Women into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement. He was founder and President of Indoamerica, an NGO that promotes education in poor areas of Argentina suffering from social breakdown. He was cofounder of Media Watch International, based in Paris, for which he is Secretary General. He is Deputy Director of the Scientific Council of the New Policy Forum founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. Savio is responsible for international relations of the European Centre for Peace and Development; is Chairman of Accademia Panisperna, a cultural meeting space in Rome, and is also President of Arcoiris TV, an online TV channel. Savio has also been actively involved in promoting exchanges between regional information services, such as between ALASEI and the Organisation of Asian News Agencies now known as the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, and between the PanAfrican News Agency and the Federation of Arab News Agencies. Among many awards, Savio was honoured with the Hiroshima Peace Award in 2013; the Joan Gomis Memorial Award (Catalunya) for Journalism for Peace in 2013; the "Salvador Allende" award, given to honour a personality from the world of culture, art or politics who actively support the conservation of Latin America's rich history and culture. Savio serves in advisory roles to among others: the Director General of the International Labour Organization; to the Executive Director of the World Food Programme; he is Deputy Director of the Scientific Council of the New Policy Forum; is responsible for international relations of the European Centre for Peace and Development; is a member of the Executive Committee for Fondazione Italiani; and a member of the Maurice Strong Sustainability Award Selection Panel. A well published author, Savio has written and edited several books, the last ones on Jim Grant, director of UNICEF, Maurice Strong, the climate campaigner and Boutros Boutros Ghali, the secretary general of the UN. He is presently working on a book on Kofi Annan. |