In memory of Gianni Filippini: journalism and cultural commitment

"You don't remember the days, you remember the moments", writes Cesare Pavese. And the long professional experience of Gianni Filippini, who passed away on December 31st, recalls the moments of a life in which the commitment to the Unione Sarda was all-encompassing.

Some of these moments were recalled in the meeting that took place at the Unione Sarda, in the "Giorgio Pisano" hall in Cagliari. A tribute desired by the Cesare Pintus association and by the editorial group to which the newspaper refers. The beginnings in the headquarters of the Terrapieno, the apprenticeship up to the gradual ascent towards roles of responsibility up to the management between 1977 and 1986. Difficult years, with tormented political phases, passages of time which, from the deck of his ship, Filippini has always managed with balance and measure.

Lia Serreli (General Manager of the L'Unione Sarda Group), in the introduction, recalled the elegant trait: «A gentleman journalist». To Lorenzo Paolini, his successor in the role of editorial director, in an interview in March 2018 he said: «The first one I met was Count Giulio Spezia who wrote with pen and inkwell. But who hired me shortly after, January 8, 1954, was Fabio Maria Crivelli: my first and only director. In 1977 that role became mine». And on journalism: «Information will never end because people need to know. The crisis, however, weighs heavily, and even a lot. The core is quality. The Unione Sarda, in history, has suffered some insidious attacks, I remember well Everything newspaper, L'Altro Giornale, and has been able to face them with quality and completeness. The point is that readers need precision and certainty, if you make a nice 60-page newspaper and then get the time of the congress wrong, you've destroyed everything. Anyone who reads you must think that what is written in the newspaper is like a Gospel. Trust, credibility and facts separated from opinions: more than ancient, they even seem to me concepts of the future».

The director

Journalist Giancarlo Ghirra recalls Filippini at the helm of the newspaper: «A powerful Christian Democrat wanted my head for an article he didn't like. Filippini told me with a half smile. The desire of that politician not to let me write again did not go through". Other memoirs arise from the 2018 interview and take shape in the words of the protagonist: «In 1977 I became editor of a newspaper which was then 88 years old and not even a female journalist. On March 7, I called a co-worker I didn't know but she seemed promising. I told her: write a nice article for tomorrow, non-trivial and without clichés, on Women's Day and I'll publish it on the front page. For three hours she remained locked in a small room from which smoke came out. Eventually the piece was published and Maria Paola Masala hired: first woman in L'Unione Sarda. And I also like to remember Maria Francesca Chiappe, the first female news editor. I met her when she was a swimmer and I was the president of a company, somehow I kept her at baptism». Lorenzo Paolini underlines the value of the results achieved with the publishing initiative "The Library of Identity". «He brought many classics of our literature into the homes of Sardinians».

The commissioner

The historian Gianfranco Murtas, in a recently published "Notebook", recalls his human, professional and cultural adventure and his precious contribution to the drafting of the volumes dedicated to the history of Sardinianism and the republican movement. Then there are the multiple links with the “Cesare Pintus” association recalled by the president Gianni Liguori. That partnership which is inspired by the values embodied by a rigorous anti-fascist who was mayor of Cagliari during the period of post-war reconstruction and editor-in-chief of the Unione Sarda. And the commitment to the promotion of books with the column "Sardinia d'autore" for sixteen years broadcast on Videolina and political activity, in the nineties, with the great merit of having supported, recalled Massimiliano Messina, one of the boys of "Ipogeo", the launch of Cagliari Monumenti Aperti, a virtuous turning point that has given new impetus to the city.