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L'ORA SICILIAN POLITICAL NEWSPAPER

SERBIAN STUDENT KILLS AUSTRIAN HEIR AND WIFE

GERMANY DECLARES WAR ON RUSSIA AND FRANCE

LOYAL SICILY BETRAYED AND VILIFIED AT THE LAST MINUTE

RECLAIMS ITS RIGHT TO FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE

Everything began on an August day in 1954.

I had left Rome full of optimism

to become the editor of a newspaper in Palermo,

which I knew had a great history.

A sense of happiness came over me as I stepped off the airplane.

I felt enthralled by the golden air of the rocks of the amphitheater

and the mountains and cliffs overlooking the sea,

which spread out before me.

I still didn't have a clear vision for the future direction of L'Ora,

but I knew it would have journalistic potential

if it could relaunch its identity and take on a challenge.

My first concern was to widen the paper's appeal.

We were able to do so thanks to the immediate formation

of a highly intellectual staff.

I am especially referring to Mario Farinella, Aldo Costa,

and a few months later, Giuliana Salatino.

OUR TERRIBLE CITY

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT BY GIULIA SALA

In the following months, many intellectuals and writers

gathered around our newspaper.

Enzo Sellerio, Vincenzo Consolo and Michele Perriera.

Perriera started as a rookie reporter,

before, just a few years later,

becoming our best cultural editor

MUSIC CRITIC FOR L'ORA

Nisticò was lucky, because he found

a group of first-rate intellectual journalists.

It's hard to imagine there being just one of these writers

at the newspaper L'Ora.

These people had a formidable talent for writing.

A SICILIAN IN MILAN: FAR FROM HOME BY VINCENZO CONSOLO

VESPERS ON TRIAL

We felt that Sciascia was one of us.

SICILIANS AND RELIGION

He would take on direct reporting, or fiery controversies.

SICILY ISN'T AFRICA

When the newspaper asked him for an article or a commentary...

OCELOTS AND JACKALS

...he would come into the newsroom almost furtively,

as if he wanted to be seen as little as possible.

He would slowly take out a sheet folded in four.

THE ART OF THE SLY BY LEONARDO SCIASCIA

He'd say, "Tell me if that's okay."

That's what he always did.

AN INVESTIGATION IN PALERMO

LIFE AND CULTURE IN TODAY'S ITALY

"Thank you, Nanà!", we would reply.

A LITERARY MAN

Very few people called him "Nanà".

"Nanà" was his childhood nickname.

In 1961,

L'Ora published two full pages, which can be seen here,

on these pages.

"A century of history for literary Sicily."

"An essay by Leonardo Sciascia."

These are two full pages of a large newspaper.

The newspaper only had 16 pages,

so it occupied a huge space.

Leonardo Sciascia was a father figure, our guiding light.

He actively participated.

He often participated in meetings,

in which we would set the paper out.

He was amazing, because he was the first to perceive

the direction that a certain event was going to take.

CRIME JOURNALIST L'ORA

We affectionately called him "Alberta Cuntrariosa",

an Italian made-up name for someone who always contradicts others.

He always found something to reproach...

within the popular opinion.

He always found a particular viewpoint

which made you look at a subject differently,

something no one else had seen.

WORK FOR LOCALS

NO MORE MAFIA AND FRIENDS IN PUBLIC OFFICE

A few months after Sciascia, Danilo Dolci began working with us.

He was an intellectual activist, radically different from Leonardo.

As a Sicilian man of enlightenment and an anti-populist by vocation,

Leonardo couldn't stand his philosophy

or his preaching and activism methods,

which he considered far-removed from the Sicily he knew.

Dolci would arrive at the newspaper with a large bag full of papers.

He would take out his notebook and quickly explain in detail...

ENCOUNTERS BY DANILO DOLCI ARROGANCE AND DISORDER

...precisely what he had to say about a topic that interested him...

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF POVERTY

...as well as the specific articles he wanted to write.

EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL, LIKE IN SWEDEN REPORT BY DANILO DOLCI

UNEMPLOYMENT INCONCEIVABLE FOR NORWEGIANS, BY DANILO DOLCI

SWEDISH COMPLAIN: "BREAD NOT ENOUGH" BY DANILO DOLCI

Official news channels could not accommodate such ideas,

so all the intellectuals that didn't identify with mainstream political opinion

found a place to express themselves in a small newspaper.

But due to its disruptive force as well as its persistence

in the fight against the mafia,

that small newspaper became a symbol

for the rest of the country.

The mafia looked to their rifles

The rulers did not like this law

They were like rabid dogs

Chewing their own hind legs

The poor workers

The unfortunate ones

Who bite at your heels!

Turiddu knew these beasts

And was wary of the bushes

MURDERED TRADE UNIONIST IN SCIARA KILLED FOR DEFENDING EVERYONE

I remember clearly my first encounter with the mafia.

It was an evening in May 1955 in Sciara,

following the murder of the Palermo trade unionist,

Salvatore Carnevale.

That evening in the square in Sciara,

Pertini and Carlo Levi were also there.

Pertini spoke first, passionately condemning the mafia.

But only a few people heard him.

You could see some faces...

through half-opened shutters.

Sorgi and Mario Farinella had come with me to Sciara.

Nobody could have written about that murder as well as Farinella.

The last tragic shred of a rural war...

as Carlo Levi called it.

THE GANGSTER AND POWER

WHEN POWER IS SILENCE AND SILENCE IS POWER

We were an afternoon paper.

We needed to offer more than the morning paper.

Also Nisticò had a love of photography, which we liked.

PHOTOGRAPHER FOR L'ORA

He appreciated photographs, which as a photographer was important.

He knew how to cut pictures well.

MAFIA MASSACRE TRAGEDY

The front pages were really impressive.

He and Aldo Costa would cut photos mercilessly.

CRIME JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

They had huge scissors.

But he would always find...

the right cut.

For Vittorio Nisticò the photograph was a fundamental part of the front page.

He would sketch out the front page with big red and blue crayons.

He would say, "Eh", because he spoke like that,

"Eh, here we'll put the photo of the mother holding her son."

And we would say, "But chief, there is no photo."

"Well, find it! That photo goes here."

It was a large photo, like he had seen in the English tabloids.

Only the English tabloids did that back then.

SICILIAN FATHER WANTS CUSTODY FROM FINNISH MOTHER

The photographers of L'Ora were journalists.

Nicola Scafidi was the father figure because he was also the oldest.

He competed with Gigi Petyx,

who really focused on quality.

The third one was Lo Bianco...

who was a newshound.

He was a force of nature. No picture was impossible for him.

I remember one day we arrived at the Villa Sofia Hospital,

were there was an injured man who had just been shot.

Lo Bianco followed him into the operating room.

Everyone was bewildered, thinking, "Who is this guy?"

He climbed up on a stool,

took the photo and had left before they realized what had happened.

There's not much to say. I used a Rolleiflexe.

PHOTOGRAPHER FOR L'ORA

Not a Canon or a Nikon, 200 or 400.

This was a twin-lens camera

that shot 12 frames on 6x6 film.

It had ISO 100 sensitivity.

That meant you had to master the camera.

I always carried my camera in case a photo opportunity arose.

LUPARA SINGS

All of our work had meaning.

ONLY PIGS LITTER

In the morning, I may photograph someone who had been killed.

I would face the pain, the crying,

or the silence, the flies buzzing around.

Then in the afternoon, I may cover a beauty pageant.

The work was varied and exhausting.

Since then I've always wore clogs,

because I spent hours standing in front of the police and response teams

and my feet would swell.

I was always very tired, but it was wonderful.

It was wonderful because it was exciting, other aspects weren't wonderful.

I remember...

certain moments of great pain.

Meeting a mother crying for her son...

MURDER OF MAN FROM TRAPANI

...taken away in an instant.

That was terribly sad.

We lived those moments fully,

convinced that we had to report it all.

Our challenge was to report everything.

Although L'Ora had its flaws,

rushed judgments, excessive hyperbole,

the central idea of its political journalism remained intact:

The desire to end poverty in Sicily

and to make the island a place

where people who were born there could also live there,

and would be grateful to do so.

That was the idea.

CHEERFUL ROSIN AND GUN-SLINGING STEPMOTHER

Nisticò thought up a model of news

that was accessible to the public.

It was a newspaper...

JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

...that had a considerable voice on the cultural panorama,

but it was also a popular newspaper.

MURDER IN CASTELDACCIA SUSPECT IN THE SMALL HAREM

It was focused on news and crime stories.

SOMEONE SAID TOO MUCH IN ALLEY ON WARD SILENCE REIGNS

You could say it focused on the crudeness of society...

CLOSED DUE TO ROBBERY

...and the refined spheres of politics and culture.

L'Ora was the first publication to mix the crude and the refined.

JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

No matter what happened,

be it general news, crime, political or cultural news,

the point was to create a mosaic of the city,

in which everything would be included.

It may have been too much to try to have everything.

But this meant that even if you wrote a music review,

it was also a social critique.

It was activist journalism,

but it tried to bring culture and activism together.

It wasn't common at that time.

When you talk about L'Ora, you talk about these battles.

THEATRE CRITIC FOR L'ORA

The reports on the mafia, etc. The bomb in the printing press.

But a fundamental aspect of the newspaper,

especially when Nisticò was the editor,

was its focus on culture and society.

BOOKS ANTI-CHRISTIAN NIETZSCHE

Culture was an instrument of political activism.

JEAN GENET'S NOVELS

The worker was always in the minority and degraded by his masters,

because he knew fewer words than them.

There was a central awareness that, without culture,

one could not reach a certain status,

or achieve certain goals.

The driving idea was a social idea.

The salvation of Sicily.

The progress of Palermo society.

BREAD AND DEATH

DON CALÒ THE LIFE OF A BOSS

In 1958 the "Bread and Death" headline...

BLOOD CALLS FOR BLOOD

...instantly identified the dialectic substance of the mafia.

This report was a team effort.

It was the first example of investigative journalism produced

by a pool of different talents.

HOW THE MAFIA KILLS

Article after article,

L'Ora stunned its readership and the authorities...

GENERAL MAFIA

...who at the time...

JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

...denied the existence of the mafia

and especially the relationship between the mafia and politics.

DANGEROUS!

With this group of journalists and educated men,

L'Ora, took on a more leading role

during the most important year in my 20-year leadership, 1958.

6 A.M. TWO BOMBS AT L'ORA

It was the year of the Milazzo Operation

as well as the mafia's dynamite attack against our newspaper.

IF YOUR REPORTING GOES ON, WE WILL BLOW OUT THE BRAINS

OF THESE REPORTERS:

The first round of our battle against the mafia...

GOVERNMENT DEBATE ON L'ORA ATTACK

...ending with the attack on our offices, didn't turn out as they had hoped.

ATTACK SHOWS MAFIA EXISTS

Our report resonated internationally.

PRESS ASSOCIATION CONDEMNS L'ORA ATTACK

MAFIA BEHIND EXPLOSION

Public outcry and political acts followed...

INDIGNATION AFTER ATTACK ON L'ORA

...culminating years later in the creation of the Anti-Mafia Commission.

WAVE OF INDIGNATION FOLLOWING ATTACK ON L'ORA

The newspaper's response was to continue with the investigation.

EX-DIRECTOR ITALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY

Because the explosion was the result

of the investigation by L'Ora,

which was a very important investigation into the mafia.

It was a front-line newspaper,

because it attacked the criminal powers head-on.

It was also the newspaper that exposed, through documented evidence,

the relationship between politics and organized crime.

Many of the newspaper's reports were used

to inform the work of the first Anti-Mafia Commission.

Collaborations came from varied sources, some even political.

The first I remember were with Gilberto Nanetti, Mauro De Mauro,

Roberto Ciuni and Gioacchino Lanza Tommasi.

Nanetti did not stay with us very long.

He left us with happy memories and a lesson:

The mafia should also be fought courageously and creatively

through ridicule.

Something unimaginable at the time.

THE STORY OF CALOGERO LUPARA

EPISODE ONE HE GOES OUT EVERY FRIDAY

"I DON'T KNOW A THING" "WE WEREN'T THERE" "I WASN'T THERE"

"I SWEAR ON THEIR LIVES I'VE NEVER HAD CHILDREN"

"HE SAID SOMETHING" "HE TALKS TOO MUCH!"

"I KNOW NOTHING, I WASN'T THERE." "SOPHIA LOREN OR MARILYN MONROE?"

EPISODE TWO BY NANET AND ATTALO

"IT STINKS OF GONE-OFF WET NURSE MILK" "SHAME YOU'RE ONLY DEAF!"

"HERE'S TO BEING ON THE RUN" FOR A FAMILY'S DUAL MOURNING

PEPE KNEW EVERYTHING NOW HE'S DISAPPEARED

"IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE LESS DISCIPLINED!"

"A" FOR ABDUCT "B" FOR BLASPHEMY

"THANK YOU FATHER, THAT BLESSING SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR THREE DAYS"

"IF YOU SAY 'MEOW' YOU'RE DEAD"

EPISODE FIVE

SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS EPISODES

"VOTE FOR DON CALÒ, OR"

"HE'S UNDER THE WEATHER, BUT NO FEVER" "THANK GOODNESS"

FAT CRAZY MAN

EPISODE SIX

"ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?"

Gilberto Nanetti had invented a new language,

which was aggressive and based on irony.

He was ahead of his time,

doing what we would see in the 1970s from Giuseppe Impastato on Radio Aut.

This style became widespread.

The comics also illustrated the news.

Cris Mancuso was very much part of that,

who was a writer at the newspaper,

as well as Etrio Fidora, who was co-editor and editor.

Great artists played their part too.

I would especially highlight Bruno Caruso.

He would produce his sketches...

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS EXPEL CIANCIMINO

...which all had strong political connotations.

In one of these cartoons,

he brought together numerous well-known personalities of the time.

It was called "Hurrah for Sicily!"

and it showed public figures around mafia boss Luciano Leggio.

These comic strips caused a lot of trouble for the newspaper,

and for Bruno Caruso himself.

Vittorio Nisticò had received one defamation suit too many,

so a substitute managing editor was appointed, Etrio Fidora.

It was the first and perhaps only time in the history of Italian journalism

that a journalist had been suspended from their profession

for having published

those comic strips and those reports

on the mafia and politics.

PALERMO: THE OCTOPUS, THE CROW, THE FALCON, THE SNAKE'S HEAD

After the summer of 1961, I became editor of Il Paese in Rome,

where I got involved in a rather reckless situation,

leading me to return to my home, L'Ora.

Both sets of staff were joyous.

In Rome they had gotten rid of a sort of Sicilian alien,

with an authoritative streak and reputation,

whilst in Palermo they rejoiced at my return.

I had only been gone a few months,

but my return stirred intense feelings in me,

some of them new.

Being far away, I realized that a Sicilian identity

had profoundly penetrated...

my existence.

I was marked by it.

I realized Sicily was my small homeland...

and that even the link with my journalistic family

was founded on a comradery that was completely Sicilian.

Meanwhile a talented journalist was emerging, Salvo Licata.

A writer and guitarist

who embodied the rebellious nature of "the dark city",

working class Palermo, where he had grown up.

Within my personal categorization of Sicilian identity,

he wasn't a Sicilian of the open sea,

but rather a Sicilian of the shore,

incapable of indifference,

like so many I've known and loved.

Licata played the guitar and sang.

He went to Rome to become an actor in shows and movies.

He met Carlo Levi in Rome who wrote him a letter of recommendation,

which is how it worked.

JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

The letter was addressed to my father, who introduced him to Nisticò.

He suggested Nisticò hire him,

because he had talent coming out of his ears.

My father's first article was bizarre

A TURTLE BY NIGHT

because it was about a woman who thought she was a turtle.

When he told my mother about it...

JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

...she said, "Your editor must be crazy if he let you publish this."

But Nisticò was a genius, he knew that my father was different,

capable of telling the stories of different neighborhoods.

So when Pasolini came to Palermo,

Nisticò said only my father was to show him round, which he did.

My father told him stories of the city.

These reports were told like stories, they were wonderful investigative pieces.

The first was about working class boys.

FIELDS, VINEYARDS AND GARDENS REPLACED BY APARTMENT BLOCKS

He wrote about his youth, his friends and what they talked about.

GOODBYE WORKING CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS

He did one article about his friends who were thieves...

CRIME JOURNALIST FOR L'ORA

...as if it were any other profession.

They were truly splendid reports.

They say an article needs a strong first and last paragraph,

and the rest isn't important.

His opening paragraphs were striking.

"Working class neighborhoods in Palermo are, or were,

joyful by definition,

like the cold is biting and death is blind."

"Their names confirm their cheerfulness:

Villa Grazia, Sette Cannoli, Acqua Santa, Croce Verde."

"Or they are inexplicable: Brancaccio, Tommaso Natale, Uditore, Cruillas."

"Even those names are mysteriously joyful."

He loved the working class neighborhoods,

their culture and way of speaking.

So when he wrote about them in the paper,

he didn't dispassionately report the news,

he wrote with the passion and love these marginalized people deserved.

He gave them a voice they otherwise wouldn't have had.

When he wrote the song "Suk el Balarà",

"I know the smells of this city,

the stones of its buildings scarred by time."

When he writes about Palermo in the song "Palermo Tu",

it's like a fresco of Palermo, a testament of his love for the city.

I remember one evening at the newspaper,

because I would write my reviews having been to the theatre,

arriving at the offices at 1:30 a.m. when everything was closed,

with just one security guard on duty, who looked incredibly like Togliatti.

Anyway, one evening I was there writing a review of Don Giovanni,

and out comes Licata, which was strange because it was late,

and he asked me with a sly smile, "What are you doing?"

I said, "A review on Don Giovanni."

"While you've been writing your review, three people have been killed!"

I know the smells

Of this city

The stones of its buildings

Scarred by time

Time that passes in vain through here

Who can bear the Ballarò Market?

Then came the Belice earthquake.

A death count of 232, 623 injured and 40,000 displaced.

ENTIRE TOWNS DESTROYED BY SICILY EARTHQUAKE

HUNDREDS DEAD

SEVENTEEN DEAD SO FAR A NIGHTMARE IN PALERMO

The region and the state turned out to be completely incompetent...

GIBELLINA DEVASTATED FIRST PHOTOS

...be that in organising rescue efforts, or initial urgent reconstruction.

EARTHQUAKE IN PALERMO IN THE WAKE OF TERROR

DEATH COUNT RISES 12,000 DISPLACED

There was a risk of mass exodus from Sicily.

A TRIP TO THE APOCALYPSE "WE HAVEN'T EATEN FOR TWO DAYS"

A feeling of desperation was shared amongst the people...

RESCUE EFFORTS: A BROKEN MACHINE

...stranded in the countryside,

survivors of towns razed to the ground...

A DESERT OF RUBBLE: GIBELLINA AND POGGIOREALE

...now displaced in tent villages and welcome centers.

A feeling borne not only out of the unbelievable destruction,

but out of a lack of trust and sense of abandonment.

THE SHAME OF BELICE

There was nonetheless and immense wave of solidarity.

Above all, a will to resist emerged

in order to survive and rebuild.

NO MORE EMIGRATION TO THE NORTH!

CAREFUL! OUTLAWED!

EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS MARCH TOWARDS PALERMO

During the Belice earthquake, L'Ora promoted a series of initiatives,

such as the construction of a school for the children of Monte Vago,

an ancient town turned to rubble.

I remember vividly when Bruno Carbone, sent to report on the devastated areas,

returned with a series of colored drawings found in the rubble...

STAYING QUIET MAKES YOU A MURDERER

...of an elementary school.

We published the drawings with the headline:

"Monte Vago was my beautiful town."

20 DRAWINGS FOUND IN RUBBLE OF SCHOOL IN MONTE VAGO

To increase contributions to the appeal,

we gave publication rights to a few high-circulation newspapers.

Exactly one year later, the school was standing again.

It was the first reinforced building built following the destruction of Belice.

RETALIATION OR FEAR

CAR FOUND BUT NOT OUR COLLEAGUE THE HOURS OF ANGUISH

HELP US

The De Mauro tragedy turned our small world upside down.

We were overcome by a terrible, absurd emptiness.

He vanished into thin air.

The most lacerating experience...

was realizing that despite giving everything

in terms of work, rage and suffering,

we were unable to truly understand what had happened.

We felt this professional impotence...

which was annoying and draining.

Mauro De Mauro was another of the legends at L'Ora,

because he was considered the best reporter

of anti-mafia crime news.

He had a glorious past as a reporter,

but a less glorious past in terms of personal politics,

because he had been a fascist

and had been in the Decima Flottiglia MAS, the Fascist regime's commando unit,

after the fall of Mussolini.

Nisticò knew about De Mauro's fascist past,

but he still put his trust in him

and gave him a leadership role,

because Mauro De Mauro wrote several pieces against the mafia.

It was another example of Nisticò's extraordinary open-mindedness.

As editor of a communist newspaper,

he hired someone who had been in the Italian Social Republic

and allowed him to work freely, without censorship.

He really trusted him.

I think De Mauro paid that trust back, because he fulfilled his duties loyally.

"WE'RE FOLLOWING ALL LEADS BUT WITHOUT RESULTS"

There were two main leads.

One was regarding his relationships, or at least acquaintances...

ANTI-MAFIA COMMISSION INVESTIGATING DE MAURO'S DISAPPEARANCE

...with the subversive community

SEVEN DAYS AND NO RESULTS IN SEARCH FOR DE MAURO

which at the time was bringing the country close to a middle-class coup.

NOTHING YET ON DE MAURO

ALL ITALIAN JOURNALISTS OFFER REWARD FOR FINDING DE MAURO

The other lead was his commission by the director Francesco Rosi

to carry out an investigation

into the murder of Enrico Mattei.

I think that...

WRITER AND COLLABORATOR FOR L'ORA

...Mauro de Mauro said the right thing to the wrong man,

or the wrong thing to the right man.

I am referring to Mattei and the work Mauro was doing for Rosi.

This small investigation into the people surrounding Mattei.

I think Mauro found someone when he was asking around,

and maybe inadvertently,

he found the right lead.

The person in question would have panicked.

Then Mauro probably went back to talk to that person,

making the person panic even more.

Mauro de Mauro died for knowing something he didn't know.

THE DE MAURO CASE: DISAPPEARING IN PALERMO

The commitment of L'Ora to its work

came at a high cost in blood,

with no precedents in any other newspaper or publication.

There were three deaths between 1960 and 1972.

In 1960,

the correspondent from Termini Imerese, Cosimo Cristina, was killed.

He was a young man

who reported on mafia incidents

when no one was even talking about the mafia yet.

In 1970, Mauro de Mauro disappeared.

In 1972,

the correspondent from Ragusa, Giovanni Spampinato, was killed.

A young reporter who in the suburbs of Ragusa,

had followed the journalistic model of L'Ora.

Of course the murdered journalists caused us great pain,

but their deaths also confirmed the importance of our work.

Of course we were afraid, only a reckless person would not be.

But we had all chosen that profession, and chosen to do it a certain way.

We were driven by a sense of responsibility,

to ourselves, our colleagues and our readers.

That attitude continued,

even in the run-up to the Maxi Trial

and the mafia war in the 1980s,

when the reporters at L'Ora were threatened, intimidated and pressured,

in a very serious way.

But we kept going,

convinced of our profession and our duty.

We could have taken a step back, but nobody did.

Despite the difficult times, the staff proved worthy of their duty.

Between 1972 and 1975,

L'Ora was more creative than ever and grew in popularity.

A Northern newspaper even described L'Ora

as the most cinematic Italian newspaper in the world.

More than the Corriere della Sera, which had featured in Bellocchio's film.

THE FASCISTS HAD ALREADY THREATENED HIM

During those years...

THE DRAMA OF THE VINCI TRIAL

...three generations of journalists from my 21 years as editor

worked side by side.

ITALY'S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED

Vittorio oversaw three generations of journalists.

His generation, which was still fully functioning.

Then the second generation,

whose two shining lights were Salvo Licata and Mario Genco.

Then the third generation, which was my generation.

Some were a bit older than me, but we all started in the early 1970s.

There was a group of "older" managers, who were actually in their forties.

Then there were us youngsters, who within the newspaper sought

a place to bring together our politics, culture and desire to report.

FREE VIETNAM PEACE IN THE WORLD

It was an enlightening atmosphere for us,

which championed principles,

be that anti-mafia or anti-fascist.

We were proud to say we worked for L'Ora,

even if there was no money, or equipment...

We were limited at all levels,

but we felt it was honorable,

that's the word that comes to mind

to be a part of that group of people.

WOMEN SEARCHING FOR THEMSELVES BUT THEY ARE NOT DOLLS

HOW DIVORCE WILL WORK

THE WEARY WIFE

THE UNHAPPY FAMILY

YOU'RE THE "ABNORMAL" ONES

NEITHER A BABE OR A MATRIARCH

FREE IN MATERNITY PROTAGONISTS IN SOCIETY

EMANCIPATION CHANGES LIVES

It was an incredibly strict newspaper.

Everything was checked.

There were fierce debates,

and no excuses were accepted.

There were spiritual hierarchies,

which weren't to be violated under any circumstances.

If you were the new person your opinion counted the least.

You had to remain respectfully quiet

before this inner circle

with the mythical Nisticò at its center.

That inner circle was made up of Farinella, Marcello Cimino,

Giuliana Saladino, Aldo Costa,

Cris Mancuso...

I remember Giuliana Saladino was one of the "senators" of the newspaper,

along with her husband Marcello Cimino.

She was the worst "teacher" at the newspaper,

even worse than Nisticò.

Nisticò would call you into his office...

shut the door and let you have it.

But she did it in public, in front of everyone.

She would say, "This is terrible, nobody uses that word!"

But she was fantastic, and thanks to her we progressed,

we took huge steps forward.

Nisticò understood I didn't know where to start,

having just left high school.

So he said to me, "Let's do something different.

Starting today, you'll go with 'Ciccio'."

He meant Francesco "Ciccio" La Licata, the "prince of crime reporting."

"You don't have to do anything, just observe what he does."

During the first three days, I visited hospitals with La Licata,

who didn't say a single word to me.

That shows how hard learning the ropes was.

You had to pass these

incredible tests of stamina.

Just to be clear, L'Ora was indeed a family,

a family with quarrels, conflict, harshness and controversies.

It was not idyllic, working at L'Ora was hard.

There were big internal conflicts, like in all newspapers.

It was a small paper with big personalities that clashed.

So what did we learn?

We learned quickly, from a young age,

to deal with big important issues.

Sicily has always been an extraordinary and dramatic hub

for politics, economy, culture and social relations.

We were at the heart of it.

All taken into account, L'Ora was a good newspaper,

due to Nisticò's ability as its helmsman,

as well as the others that came after him.

It was well written.

It was multifaceted.

It lived because of its independence

and died because of its independence.

And it was the only democratic publication in southern Italy, truth be told.

L'Ora was more than a simple opposition newspaper.

Its peculiarity was that it operated in an area of the country

where democratic life came harder than in other places.

All of this could only make our work more dramatic,

but it also shaped our journalistic style as truthful and research-based.

L'Ora was a very important newspaper,

so those who worked there were very lucky.

I left L'Ora to work for Il Messaggero

having already come to Rome as a correspondent for L'Ora.

I remember feeling apprehensive,

as you do when starting a new role.

But after two days the feeling passed, because I realized I was fully equipped.

There was nothing my new bosses could ask me that I couldn't do.

I learned everything at L'Ora.

As an afternoon paper under Nisticò,

L'Ora sold almost the same number of copies as the main morning newspaper.

That says a lot.

It tells you it was a good newspaper that had gained people's trust.

People waited to read L'Ora to find out what had happened,

because official news sources didn't tell the whole story.

When they celebrated the 40-year anniversary of Repubblica,

everyone rightly praised Scalfari

for having changed the structure of newspapers.

He got rid of page three, cultural news became central

And the greatest compliment they paid him

was that he tried to compress a weekly magazine into a daily paper.

Very comfortably,

I can say that since 1958,

that's exactly what Nisticò was doing.

Culture was no longer just on page three, but throughout the newspaper.

His ambition from the 1960's onwards,

thanks to his extraordinary journalists,

was to bring out a daily paper that resembled a weekly magazine.

Indeed,

we can say this because we have the documents to back it up.

Nisticò was one of the great editors of Italian journalism.

After many years, I liked to remember that at least my last moments at L'Ora

hadn't been amongst headlines of terror and death,

as had been the case for so many years,

but with the newspaper and its staff

at the center of an unprecedented civil movement.

Culture took to the streets, to fight for good government.

Consolo moved to Palermo during the first months of 1975.

I had asked him to give us a hand in view of June's local elections,

in which Leonardo Sciascia was running for the Palermo City Council.

His election was strongly symbolic.

Sciascia represented L'Ora

and L'Ora had given its all.

CANDIDATE L. SCIASCIA

"WHY BOTHER?"

SCIASCIA: WHY I STAND WITH THE ITALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY

A SILENT MAN WITH A LOT TO SAY

SCIASCIA INTERVIEWED BY STUDENTS

"L'Ora is a communist newspaper but it allows me to express myself

with a freedom hard to find in other Italian newspapers.

Regarding my being left-wing, I certainly am, and without subtlety."

Leonardo Sciascia

LAST PLEA BY PARTIES

FORTY MILLION VOTE

PALERMO VOTES LEFT

ITALY'S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED

ITALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY WINS OVER 11 MILLION VOTES

I'm stepping down as editor of this newspaper after 20 years.

It's not a painless decision.

If L'Ora has had a positive impact during these years

on the fight for the renewal of Sicily,

it's fundamentally due to the commitment of its journalists,

and the trust placed in their hands by the growing number of readers.

I will always be grateful to both,

but especially grateful to Sicily.

A place I will be leaving temporarily,

and where I have found my definitive citizenship.

It's impossible to share in this island's fate for 20 years

without it leaving an indelible mark.

I am a man of the South

and I've discovered Palermo is in my blood.

I have seen how this nation's rulers have failed to unite the country.

But Sicily is an extraordinary cultural realm

that incessantly brings everything back to a human dimension.

Everything is abstract,

if it doesn't fulfil the reasoning, needs and demands of humankind.