The Vatican has banned an Italian journalist from travelling on the papal plane during Pope Francis’s visit to Cuba and the United States later this year.
Experienced Vatican correspondent Marco Ansaldo will be forced to seek alternative transport to cover the visit.
The sanction comes as punishment for his newspaper’s role in breaching an embargo on the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’ last month.
La Repubblica, a left-leaning daily, came under criticism from the Vatican when its media conglomerate, L’Espresso, published an advance copy of the encyclical.
The Vatican reacted by banning the L’Espresso journalist responsible for the leak, Sandro Magister, from the Vatican press office indefinitely.
La Repubblica said the latest sanction went too far.