Washington DC, May 11, 2016 – The New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti is the winner of the 2016 Urbino Press Award, the Italian prize that is awarded annually to an American reporter or columnist. The prize will be awarded during a ceremony to be held over the summer at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino.
"The choice of Mark Mazzetti as winner of the 2016 Urbino Press Award is a testament to the recognition of the value of entrepreneurship and of journalistic dynamism" said the Italian Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Armando Varricchio." The partnership of the Embassy with the Urbino Press Award is the result of a significant cooperation that looks to the future of journalism and to the way foreign policy is narrated to the readers, and Mazzetti was therefore added to a list of important American journalists who have distinguished themselves in journalistic investigation."
Mark Mazzetti has been the Washington correspondent of the New York Times on national security issues since 2006. Prior to joining the New York Times Mazzetti was staff writer with the Los Angeles Times, Pentagon correspondent for US News & World Report, and Washington D.C. correspondent for the Economist. An investigation carried out in 2009 with other colleagues on the increase in violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan and on how US policy reacted to such violence won him the Pulitzer Prize. Mark Mazzetti is the author of the book "The Way of the Knife: The CIA, Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth" published in 2013.
"When more than a decade ago, with Giovanni Lani, we created the Urbino Press Award” - says Giacomo Guidi, fashion designer and co-founder of the award – “we thought, with the highest philanthropic sentiment, of a cultural event that could create something useful for the city and the territory. I believe that with our engagement, and contributions of various organizations, we were able to build a real bridge with the United States of America. During these past years, the award-winning journalists, beacons of excellence of the most prestigious U.S. print media, presented an extraordinary testimony, narrating the facts of this complicated decade. They made us understand that at the foundation of their daily work, often conducted in high-risk places, there is a deep sense of duty to keep the public informed, as well as the greatest respect for the truth. This is the great lesson that the Urbino Press Award winners, year after year, have offered to the city of Urbino. "
"With great engagement - says the Mayor of Urbino Maurizio Gambini - the institutions of the city, including the Urbino International Centre and the Marche Region, have renewed their support for the prize for the U.S. press, now in its eleventh edition. The fact that the name of the city of Urbino is linked to an international cultural initiative of excellence makes us proud. The Urbino Press Award offers a great chance for the whole region to play its role on the world stage. The Washington event is an excellent opportunity to develop contacts with the U.S. media and with various sectors of the U.S. economy. The follow-on award ceremony that takes place in the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino is always an exciting event which allows us to take a front seat on the international stage."
The Urbino Press Award, with its Chairman Giovanni Lani, counts among its previous winners Diane Rehm, Michael Weisskopf, Martha Raddatz, Thomas Friedman, David Ignatius, Helene Cooper, Sebastian Rotella, Wolf Blitzer, Maria Bartiromo, and Gwenn Ifill. The award is made possible through the generous support of the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington D.C., the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), the fashion house Piero Guidi, the Marche Region, the City of Urbino, the Urbino International Centre, and the dairy industry Val D'Apsa.
