'Vatileaks' journalist declined Vatican accreditation

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - An Italian journalist who published leaks of confidential papal documents last year said Monday he had been denied accreditation by the Vatican to cover the upcoming conclave.

"This is a choice for obscurantism, far from transparency and press freedom," Gianluigi Nuzzi said on his Twitter account.

Mr Nuzzi published his book "Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI" last year, alleging high intrigue at the heart of the Catholic Church.

Benedict's butler Paolo Gabriele - one of the lay people closest to the head of the world's Catholics - was convicted of leaking the documents but later pardoned by the then pope. The scandal came to be known as "Vatileaks".