Born and raised in Taranto, Petrini began her journalistic career in radio and then worked with Adnkronos, l’Unità and the Espresso Group.

In 2008, she participated alongside Alessandro Sortino in the investigative program “Malpelo” (La7) and soon after she joined the editorial staff of “Exit” (La7), working as a correspondent for five seasons. In 2016, she became co-host of “Nemo – Nessuno escluso” (Rai 2) alongside Enrico Lucci and in 2017, she developed “I cacciatori” (Canale 9) with Pablo Trincia. In 2019 she launched #Fake – La fabbrica delle notizie (Canale 9) and she afterwords worked as a columnist and collaborator for Cartabianca (Rai 3).

She has reported from Poland, Russia, the United States, Donbass, Tunisia, Niger, and Iraq. For her investigative reporting, she was a finalist for the Ilaria Alpi Award, won the Dig Award 2016 and the Di Donato Award 2018.

She published Non chiamatele fake news [Don’t Call It Fake News] (Chiarelettere, 2020) and Il cielo oltre le polveri. Storie, verità e menzogne sull’Ilva di Taranto [The Sky Beyond Dust. Truths and lies about ILVA di Taranto Steelworks] (Solferino, 2022).
In 2021, she developed with Massimo Polidoro his first podcast, “Complotti”, produced by Audible.

She currently writes the column “Voci di Strada” for FQ Millennium and writes for Il FattoQuotidiano.it.