Giovanna Botteri retires after a long career as a war correspondent and then Rai correspondent. Your latest reports from France have highlighted the Rassemblement national phenomenon, the great winner of last Sunday’s European Championships. Only the latest of many pages of history told by the journalist, who in recent years has told the Italian public about other large and complex countries such as the USA and China. «An icon of public service», Usigrai pays homage to her on the day Botteri reaches retirement age. Nothing to ask for, but many memories, and some teachings to pass on without a doubt, for her. «I’m not on social media, at this moment the thing I really want is to thank all those who have helped me in these years at Rai, have been close to me, have taught me many things: colleagues, technicians, operators, editors, employees, those who take the pieces from you – Botteri informs Ansa from Paris – The beauty of this adventure is that it is a human adventure, for the people you meet, the stories you hear, for those who work for you and with you and who maybe you can’t see them. If my job was well done, it was thanks to them. This is the strong lesson of humility and respect that these years have taught me and it is what I carry with me.”
Career and projects
Triestina, born in 1957, after his first experiences in the printed press, Botteri began to collaborate with Rai, then joining the foreign editorial staff of Tg3, a newspaper for which he reported as a special correspondent some of the main international events of recent decades – from the revolution in Romania to the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, from the G8 in Genoa to the war in Iraq, winning the Ilaria Alpi Award and the Saint Vincent Award for her services from Baghdad. «It is right to pass the baton to others, there are many good young journalists around – reflects Botteri – But a profession like this cannot be abandoned: we know how to do this and we continue to do, like The Player Jones by De André, ‘playing it touches you / for your whole life’. It is a path that perhaps can also be followed in a different way.” Also because «passions are all maintained, they are never abandoned. Maybe, since I’m a swimming enthusiast, I’ll do more laps now.”
Memories of a lifetime
«I remember when I arrived in the Balkans for the first time, in a bombed house where everyone had been killed – Botteri told Ansa from Paris – I saw the bag from a department store in Trieste where I also went: war is something of real, that touches you. I believe this was also the attempt: to make those at home feel that what is happening is perhaps not so far away.” The memories pile up: «I had my very young daughter, I was one of the very few war reporters, perhaps the only one with children, and I was ashamed to show that I was afraid: well, I learned that you shouldn’t be ashamed of being afraid, because fear It dictates caution and saves your life. And then in difficult situations I learned to distinguish good people from bad people, because in certain moments there are no compromises or pretenses, even in relationships with people there is a lot of truth.” «I understood – she continues – how being a woman makes a difference, something that I always claim: my eyes are those of a woman, of a mother, I told stories that perhaps were not so obvious, in a moment in which little was said about the refugees, civilians and families, aspects that today would be impossible to take out of the story. And this is a result achieved partly thanks to us, who brought our sensitivity, our attention, a feminine gaze not in the sense that it belongs to a woman, but that is capable of telling something different.”
