Indro Montanelli; Independent-Minded Italian Journalist

Indro Montanelli, 92, a onetime fascist who became an icon of the right as a noted Italian journalist, died Sunday in Milan, Italy.

Montanelli was recognized as a World Press Freedom Hero last year by the International Press Institute. He displayed unusual independence over his six decades as a journalist, often clashing with his bosses at the Milan daily newspapers Il Giornale and Corriere della Sera.

A staunch anticommunist, he was a firm supporter of Italian fascism and volunteered to fight in Mussolini’s war of conquest in Ethiopia in the 1930s. Later, he worked as a war correspondent, covering conflicts in Spain, Finland, Norway, Albania and Greece.

His objectivity in covering the Spanish Civil War made him unpopular with the ruling fascists. In 1943, during World War II, Montanelli was imprisoned by the Nazis in Milan and sentenced to death for antifascism. He managed to escape and flee to Switzerland. He wrote about the period in his 1945 novel “Qui Non Riposano” (Here They Do Not Rest), which explored the disillusionment of early fascist sympathizers.