Sergio Zavoli

Sergio Wolmar Zavoli (21 September 1923 – 4 August 2020) was an Italian sports and documentary journalist and politician.

Born in Ravenna and raised in Rimini, Between 2009 and 2013, he served as Chairman of the RAI Supervisory Commission. He attended the classical lyceum in Rimini, graduating in 1943.

Zavoli's journalistic career began as a football radio commentator in 1945. He collaborated in the production of a twice-daily news bulletin broadcast to Rimini's Piazza Cavour; in particular, Zavoli reported on Rimini FC's matches. In the late 1940s, Zavoli directed , a weekly newspaper dedicated to discussing Rimini's post-war reconstruction, to which Renato Zangheri, future mayor of Bologna, also contributed.

Journalism

Sports journalism and early documentaries In 1947, Zavoli was scouted for RAI, the Italian state broadcasting company, by , who led RAI's radio commentary editorial team. He made his first debut on national radio on 15 February 1948 at a Roma–Fiorentina match, substituting an indisposed commentator. His Notturno a Cnosso (1953), produced with Giovanni Battista Angioletti, documented a nocturnal tourist itinerary in Crete, including the island's mythology and history; the documentary won the 1953 Prix Italia. Zavoli won a second Prix Italia in 1958 for Clausura (1957), exploring support and criticism for enclosed nuns, which included interviews through the grates of their enclosures. The documentary was translated into six languages, and its footage reused in a 2001 television series.

Move to television Sergio is third from the right in this photograph of RAI sports journalists, taken in June 1967. In the 1960s, Zavoli moved more definitively to television. In 1962, he inaugurated the first transmission of , a popular series of sports programmes dedicated to the Giro d'Italia; Zavoli had created a similar programme on radio in 1958. and La notte della Repubblica (1989–90), documenting the Years of Lead in eighteen episodes.

Alongside those of Cesare Zavattini, Zavoli's documentaries were considered part of a new movement in Italian documentaries which were broadcast from the field rather than reshot in studios. Writing for La Stampa in 1977, Furio Colombo said that Zavoli's success was attributable to his respectful portrayal of political opponents, a quality that was rare in the Italian press at the time.

RAI leadership and later career From 1976 to 1980, Zavoli was director of news programming on RAI's Radio 1, Zavoli navigated RAI through the advent of private broadcasters. On 22 June 2001, he joined the commission on the environment and environmental heritage, moving to the foreign affairs and emigration commission on 23 March 2004, and finally to the public education and cultural heritage commission on 29 September 2005.

In the 2006 general election, Zavoli and was reelected for the Olive Tree, moving to the library and historical archive commission on 7 July 2006 and becoming its president from 18 October 2006 until the 2008 general election, in which he was reelected for the Democratic Party.

Zavoli was reelected for the Democratic Party in the 2013 general election; aged 89, he was the oldest elected candidate. He had a second term as president of the library and historical archive commission from 18 September 2013 to 22 March 2018,

Among the legislative bills Zavoli cosigned as senator were a bill for a bank holiday on 17 March commemorating the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, a bill for a trade conference in Parma on food safety, and a bill for new tax regulations on the sale of truffles. On 12 October 2006, following Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg lecture, Zavoli spoke in the senate on "the treasures of harmony and wisdom that [ Islam] continues to reserve also to the civic and cultural dimensions of tradition". On 29 April 2008, he supported a bill by Ignazio Marino that would have facilitated assisted suicide. Among Zavoli's earlier writings are a collection of anecdotes and characters from Romagna, published in 1959. On several occasions, he expressed concerns on the city's development towards mass tourism, finding it "unnatural". Zavoli became honorary president of Rimini's Prize for Young Poetry. with whom he would communicate frequently by telephone. Zavoli edited footage he shot into a historical archive,

Zavoli's first wife, Rosalba, died in 2014; In 2017, Zavoli married Alessandra Chello,

Death Zavoli died in Rome on 4 August 2020, aged 96. Among those expressing public condolences were Sergio Mattarella, President of Italy, Stefano Bonaccini, President of Emilia-Romagna, the Diocese of Rimini, and municipal and provincial mayors. Zavoli's death was widely reported on Italian news programmes.

Zavoli's funeral was held at San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome on 7 August 2020. In accordance with his wishes, in a ceremony presided by the diocesan bishop. Il sole tramonta alle spalle (2023), a film by Mauro Bartoli featuring two unpublished interviews with Zavoli, was also screened at Rimini's Fulgor Cinema for the centenary.