Australia, Argentina, Brasil, Japan, Hong Kong: these are the most distant countries where journalists who came to see the Exposition came from. About ten tv channels recorded specials about Torino and Piedmont and about the Shroud.

There were 450 accredited journalists and operators of the Exposition 2000: 370 of them were Italian, about 80 foreigners. About 550 papers got in touch with the press office. This year we had also internet journals: 38 of them contacted the press office, ten journalists were accredited.

The majority of Italian accredited journalists worked for TV channels and radio stations, excluding those from Catholic newspapers there were 98 accredited journalists, in addition 23 radio stations and 67 TV channels contacted the press office.

About 70 journalists and 65 newspapers were in contact with the press office for Catholic Italian and foreign press.

About 60 Italian newspapers asked information of some kind to the press office and 58 journalists were accredited for these newspapers. Many newspapers were from Southern Italy, most of all from Sicily, Sardinia and Puglia. There were accredited journalists for 61 monthly magazines and 70 weekly magazines. 25 accredited journalists were free lance, 22 from press agencies, 18 from press offices of various companies.

For what concerns foreign press, there were about a hundred newspapers who got in touch with the press office, and about 80 accredits were given. The most numerous groups were from France, Germany, and US (15 journalists each). Then we find Spain (about ten), Greece, Poland, England, Russia (5 each), Hungary and Australia. There were representatives from Austria, Hong Kong, Ireland, Portugal, the State of Vatican, Switzerland, Turkey, South Korea and Argentina.

In 1998 accredited journalists and operators were 1500. 501 of them had asked a pass to attend the meeting with the Pope.

The press release for the exposition 2000 is the same size than the one of 1998: it is about 10 kilos although it is still not complete it is still quite remarkable. It includes short pieces of news, articles, dossiers taken from newspapers and magazines, from web sites and portals, from Italy or from abroad, including Tv and radio news.

Looking at the press release we can see that the coverage of the events related to the exposition of the Shroud has been larger than ever before and the news reached an extremely high number of people and countries.

It is almost obvious that the national press includes articles from famous and not famous newspapers, magazines and reviews from all over the country. It is not that obvious to notice that the press office collected large documentation from newspapers and magazines from other countries: Argentina, Switzerland, Europe - both Eastern and Western - Asian countries, U.S., Canada, Tahiti, Ile de la Reunion, Russia, South Korea.

This press release, like any one trying to give information on the works of the whole world, is not complete. However, it gives us the chance to notice some meaningful examples of the media coverage of the exposition: among those who gave space to the news of the exposition we find the Royal Jordanian Airways magazine, "Words", a monthly magazine of South Korea, the "New York Times", the "Washington Post " and "CNN", the "International Herald Tribune", and the major press agencies (Efe, Reuter, Associated Press, France Press).

E-MAIL: press.sindone@torino.chiesacattolica.it