Roberta Bonazzi
last updated: October 25, 2011
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Affiliations
- European Foundation for Democracy: Director
- Coalition Against Terrorist Media: Co-director
Education
- Institute for International Studies: MA
- University of Milan: BA
Roberta Bonazzi is the executive director of the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD), a Brussels-based research and advocacy organization that has been closely associated with neoconservative advocacy in Europe and hosted “Islamophobic” writers like Walid Phares, a former fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in the Washington, D.C.
According to its website, EFD is “a non-profit organisation dedicated to upholding Europe's fundamental principles of individual freedom and equality of all citizens, regardless of their gender, ethnic background or religion. At the dawn of the 21st century, these principles are being challenged by a number of factors, among them rapid social change as a result of high levels of immigration from cultures with different customs, a rise in intolerance on all sides, an increasing sense of a conflict of civilisations, and the growing influence of radical, extremist ideologies worldwide.”[1]
Bonazzi’s bio on the EFD website states that she has “long-standing experience as an EU public affairs practitioner. After having worked for some of the major public affairs agencies in Brussels, she founded the European Foundation for Democracy. She works on a broad range of issues relating to foreign relations, democratic reforms, violent radicalisation and terrorism. Fluent in English, Italian, French and German, Roberta holds a degree in Political Sciences and International Relations from the University of Milan and a post graduate degree from the Institute for International Studies.”
Although EFD’s website appears to be somewhat out of date, much of Bonazzi’s recent work appears to concern her involvement with a project she co-directs called the “Coalition Against Terrorist Media,” which focuses on what Bonazzi calls “Jihad TV.” In a 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed co-written with Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Bonazzi claimed, “Iranian-backed terrorist organizations are deploying another dangerous weapon in their war against Western democracies—terrorist television stations. Thanks to Arab satellite companies, Hezbollah's al-Manar and Hamas's al-Aqsa TV stations can still beam their incitement and hatred into European living rooms, radicalizing Muslim immigrants throughout the Continent.”[2]