Alessia Cerantola is a freelance journalist, board member and reporter of IRPI (Investigative Reporting Project Italy). Her favorite areas of interest are East Asia and freedom of the press related issues. In 2013 she was a Transatlantic Media Fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) of Washington DC.

Since 2007 her reports and features from Italy, Japan, South Korea and the US have been published and broadcast by a cross section of media including Internazionale, the European Journalism Center, la Repubblica, Il Sole 24 ore, il Fatto Quotidiano, Ansa, Sky, NHK, BBC World Service. She has been honored with eight awards and special mentions, including the Freedom of the Press Award 2012 by Reporters Without Borders and UNESCO (Austria).

After graduating with a four year Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies at the University of Venice with a major in Japanese language and literature, she attended a two-year Master course in Journalism at the University of Turin and a one year Master course in corporate Finance at Venice University. In February 2015 IRPI's 'the couchsurfing rapist' investigation was published on 10 media of the world: Alessia, Cecilia Anesi and Giulio Rubino were contacted by 14 young victims who blew the whistle on an Italian cop who lured, drugged and raped them using couchsurfing.