Donatella della Ratta, a reporter for Il Manifesto, the well-known Italian leftist newspaper, spoke at Aula 2006 about Al-Jazeera and the revolution in Arab media. Il Manifesto published Donatella’s report about Aula on June 18th. As of last week the paper has started an emergency fundraising campaign at risk of closure due to financial difficulties. In an email Donatella writes:

“We are a daily newspaper that publishes a national newspaper every day in 80.000 copies but we don’t have any publisher. The newspaper belongs to a cooperative of journalists and citizens… we need more financial support from citizens, we don’t want to be acquired by any corporation.”

Il Manifesto made international headline news through its involvement in the Calipari affair last year, when a reporter for Il Manifesto was taken hostage by insurgents and later wounded by a stray bullet at a U.S. checkpoint. Calipari, the Italian agent with the reporter, was killed in the shooting.

The paper is accepting donations. On the donate page a placard reads: “You support a common good.”