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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This year's games welcome the largest proportion of women Olympians in history. Among them are 50 Muslim women, who defied the odds to attend. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
Greece's long history -- and mythology -- were on display at the Olympic opening ceremonies in Athens Friday. Athletes from a record 202 countries are taking part in the games. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
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After more than a century, the Olympic Games return to Greece, a country where they were born nearly 3,000 years ago. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli visited the ruins of ancient Olympia where the original games were held to honor the Greek god Zeus. -
This summer's Olympic Games are providing Athens with improved communications, better roads and a new subway. The Greek capital is trying to lose a reputation for pollution, traffic problems and a decaying infrastructure. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
The war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is thrown in doubt over reports of Milosevic's worsening health. The trial, already two years old, has faced many delays, as Milosevic, acting as his own lawyer, has required many concessions over his health. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
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In Italy next week, five Germans go on trial in absentia for war crimes committed 60 years ago. As German troops retreated from the Allied invasion, they often adopted a "scorched earth" policy, destroying infrastructure that the Allies could use. German troops razed the village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema in three hours, killing about 560 people -- including women, children and elderly. The atrocity, along with many others by the Germans, was well-documented, but the Italian Government hid the files in the 1950s. By then, West Germany was an ally of the United States and the Cold War was underway. The files were discovered in 1994, leading to trials. The survivors of the attack on Sant'Anna remember it vividly, as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
The Spanish judge investigating the March 11 train bombings in Madrid issues five more arrest warrants. Seventeen people -- most of whom are Moroccan -- are already in jail. European officials are closely monitoring the probe into what is seen as the first major Islamic terrorist attack against a Western European target. The blasts killed 191 people and injured more than 2,000. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
A week ago, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected to a second term in a country emerging from more than a decade of civil strife. Many Algerians wonder how he intends to bridge the gap between the nation's Islamists, secular civil society and restless ethnic Berber minority. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vows to maintain his country's participation in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, despite the execution of an Italian hostage by Iraqi militants. The militants are threatening to kill three other Italian hostages seized this week if Italian troops aren't withdrawn. Hear NPR's Sylvia Poggioli.
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Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika wins a second term with more than 80 percent of the vote. Western observers call Thursday's vote the country's first genuinely pluralist presidential elections since independence in 1962. Bouteflika's former prime minister, who finished second, claims the vote was rigged. Hear NPR's Sylvia Poggioli.
