Pierluigi Franco, a law graduate and professional journalist, worked for thirty years at the ANSA news agency where, in the Foreign Affairs department, he was head of the ANSAmed service (Mediterranean and Middle East) and creator of ANSA Nuova Europa (Eastern Europe and the Balkans), which he coordinated from the Trieste office, where he was also manager. He was then head of the ANSA correspondent office in Tehran and was the last Western journalist to work permanently in Iran. Before joining ANSA, he worked for the Roman daily newspapers Il Messaggero and Il Tempo, as well as collaborating with various other publications, including Il Sole 24 Ore, Radio 24 and the German public television station ZDF. He collaborated with the National Institute of Crocean Studies, for which he published works on the work and thought of Benedetto Croce. He has worked as a consultant and lecturer for the Armed Forces. He has worked in various areas, including Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. He was a member of the jury for the Hemingway Prize. In 2022, he published the book Gorbacëv il furbo ingenuo (Gorbachev, the naive trickster), published by Rubbettino, and in 2025, with the same publisher, the book Cosa resta dell’Europa (What remains of Europe).