Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli has traveled extensively for reporting assignments. These include going to Norway to cover the aftermath of the brutal attacks by a right-wing extremist; to Greece, Spain, and Portugal reporting on the eurozone crisis; and the Balkans where the last wanted war criminals have been arrested.
In addition, Poggioli has traveled to France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark to produce in-depth reports on immigration, racism, Islam, and the rise of the right in Europe.
She has also travelled with Pope Francis on several of his foreign trips, including visits to Cuba, the United States, Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Throughout her career Poggioli has been recognized for her work with distinctions including the WBUR Foreign Correspondent Award, the Welles Hangen Award for Distinguished Journalism, a George Foster Peabody, National Women's Political Caucus/Radcliffe College Exceptional Merit Media Awards, the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize, and the Silver Angel Excellence in the Media Award. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the war in Kosovo. In 2009, she received the Maria Grazia Cutulli Award for foreign reporting.
In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston together with Barack Obama.
Prior to this honor, Poggioli was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences "for her distinctive, cultivated and authoritative reports on 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia." In 1990, Poggioli spent an academic year at Harvard University as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
From 1971 to 1986, Poggioli served as an editor on the English-language desk for the Ansa News Agency in Italy. She worked at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She was actively involved with women's film and theater groups.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature. She later studied in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship.
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The pope has focused on the poor and boosting interfaith dialogue. But he has attracted criticism over his handling of issues including clerical sex abuse and the status of women in the church. -
Italy votes for a new parliament Sunday. The populist 5-Star Movement has set its sights on heading the next government, but in Rome, where its politicians run the city, some voters are disenchanted. -
Far-right parties are campaigning for the March 4 elections, and they're not the only ones heightening the rhetoric against foreigners. -
Pope Francis questioned survivors' accounts and defended a Chilean bishop accused of a coverup. But the Vatican announced Tuesday that a top envoy will now look into survivors' claims. -
Pope Francis appeared on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica to deliver a Christmas message. This pope has traditionally used these messages to focus on conflicts that are afflicting the world.
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Pope Francis met Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh today. He asked for their forgiveness for all the harm they've endured and, for the first time during his trip, he uttered their name in public.
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In a speech in Bangladesh Thursday, Pope Francis spoke of the "refugees from Rakhine state" but, like he did in Myanmar recently, did not name the Rohingya.
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Pope Francis is in Myanmar where he voiced support for ethnic minorities, but did not mention the persecuted Muslim Rohingya by name. This, in comments to leader Aung San Suu Kyi, disappointed rights activists seeking support for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled violence.
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Pope Francis is wading into the controversial Rohingya crisis with his upcoming trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. Among those he will visit is Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been heavily criticized for not denouncing Myanmar's military crackdown on the Muslim minority.
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The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Rep. John Conyers. Also, Uber has acknowledged a massive data breach.
