ANSA

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, reporting from Iran, was arrested on December 19 by the Tehran police authorities, the Italian foreign ministry said Friday.

She is reportedly being held in the Iranian capital's notorious Evin Prison.

Rome-born Sala, 29, is the correspondent of Italian daily Il Foglio and also has her own podcast. She has worked for State broadcaster Rai too.

The Farnesina said that "by order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, the Italian embassy and consulate in Tehran are following the case with the utmost attention since its inception.

"In coordination with (Premier Giorgia Meloni's office), the Farnesina has worked with the Iranian authorities to clarify Sala's legal situation and verify the conditions of her detention.

"Today, the Italian ambassador Paola Amadei carried out a consular visit to verify the conditions and state of detention of Ms Sala. The family has been informed of the results of the visit".

Born in 1995 in Rome, Sala has worked both in editorial offices and as a freelance journalist, mainly dealing with foreign affairs.

From 2014 to 2018 she attended the economics faculty at the prestigious Luigi Bocconi University of Milan, from which she interrupted her studies six exams before being able to get her bachelor's degree.

In 2015 she began collaborating as a correspondent and reporter with Vice news; subsequently she began working with noted journalist and political talk show host Michele Santoro at the Servizio Pubblico programme on the independent broadcaster LA7, where she became a professional journalist Over the years she has collaborated with Vanity Fair, L'Espresso, Rai and Will Media, and has worked in the editorial team of prime time lead-in political talk show Otto e mezzo on LA7.

In November 2019 she joined the editorial team of Il Foglio.

In 2020, her podcast Polvere was issued by the Huffington Post, about the murder of Marta Russo in collaboration with Chiara Lalli.

Russo was a 22-year-old student at the school of law at the Sapienza University of Rome, who was shot and killed within the university grounds on May 9, 1997.

Her death was the centre of a complex court case that garnered huge media attention owing to the lack of substantial evidence and motive.

After a six-years-long trial Giovanni Scattone was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to five years in jail.

In May 2021 Sala's audio series on the Russo case also became a book, Polvere,The Marta Russo Case, published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Strade Blu.

On 10 January 2022 Sala became the author and voice of a new podcast, Stories, published by Chora Media, which tells stories from around the world every day.