About the Project:

The Media Project is raising the quality and quantity of environmental reporting in Israel, through an integrated series of initiatives to engage key journalists in the sustainability agenda and issues.

The Pratt Prize for Environmental Journalism is awarded annually to cutting-edge environmental reporting at the national, local, and community levels. Entries have more than doubled over the first four years, and the prominence and depth of media coverage of environmental issues has increased dramatically.

The Media Project also runs an annual senior journalist seminar on sustainability and distributes a bi-weekly electronic newsletter summarizing in Hebrew key articles on sustainability from the world media.

Finally, Israeli Artists for Environment and Sustainability promotes a sustainable future for Israel through key personalities in the fields of art and culture

Profile of a Media Project participant

Nitzan Horowitz, International Affairs Correspondent for Channel 10 News has placed global warming on the Israeli media agenda. His news reports and regular appearances on the popular current affairs program, “London and Kirschenbaum,” led a television critic to describe him as “the unstoppable environmental warrior” and his reports as the height of “inspiration and originality.” (Ehud Asheri, Haaretz newspaper, July 3, 2007). As a journalist, lawyer and social activist, I have come to know the Heschel Center’s wide-ranging activities and to view its role as center to environmental activity in Israel. My involvement in the Media Project inspired me to participate in the high-quality Environmental Fellows Program, which has already made a name for itself as the most successful program for nurturing environmental leadership. – Nitzan Horowitz Also see our Environmental Fellows Program

The Pratt Prize for Environmental Journalism

The Pratt Prize is awarded annually in four main categories: Broadcast Journalism, Community and Independent Journalism, Local Journalism, and National Print Journalism.

The recipients of Pratt Prizes for 2006 were:

Broadcast Journalism
"Ulpan Shishi" – "Friday Night Studio" (Channel 2) – Investigative report by Yossi Mizrahi and Haim Rivlin – "The City in Grey" – on the Haifa Bay. Read more

Community and Independent Journalism
Hadassah Ben-Herzl's film, "How Beautiful You Are, My Rosh Pina", which deals with the development boom that Rosh Pina is undergoing. Read more

Local Journalism
Oded Bar Meir, for his regular contributions to "Kol HaNegev" – "The Voice of the Negev" weekly, of Yediot Media. Read more

National Print Journalism
Yulie Khromchenko and Tamara Traubman, "Ha'aretz", for their series on the food industry. Read more

Read more about the Pratt Prize Recipients for 2006

Israeli Artists for Environment and Sustainability

Today, many artists around the world are identified with advancing issues associated with sustainability, a healthy environment and social justice. Among others, Bono is well-known for working to reduce poverty and advance the health and well-being in the developing world, Woody Harrelson is a spokesperson for organic food and bicycle transportation and Leonardo Dicaprio is at the forefront of the fight against global warming. Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth has transformed global environmental awareness, in particular to the climate crisis. Melissa Etheridge's theme song for the movie won the 2007 Oscar for best song. Following the film, Al Gore initiated the worldwide Live Earth event watched by Billions around the world. 

In Israel, celebrity involvement in environmental issues is still in its infancy and based on artists' individual environmental interests. The Heschel Center's newly formed Artists Forum for Environment and Sustainability brings together performers from film, television, theater and popular music who are interested in creating environmental activism using the tools and language with which they are comfortable. The group is the main address for Israeli performers wishing to learn and act on issues of environment and sustainability.

Among the group's members: actors Shai Avivi, Yarden Bar Cochva, Leon Rozenberg, Amnon Woolf, Rikki Blich, Yuval Abramovitz; radio and TV presenters Avri Gilad, Meirav Michaeli, Dalik Volinitz, Noam Schneider; singer-songwriters Sharon Kantor, Muki, Dan Toren, Sha'anan Streett; writers Efrat Roman Asher, Shlomo Krauss and others.

The group meets monthly for discussion, decisions on activity and study with experts and public figures on various aspects of the social-environmental crisis, and also organizes different events to expand its membership base and to promote the social-environmental discourse among other artists. In April 2007, a weekend seminar took place to impact the incorporation of environmental and sustainability content into the media. As a consequence a large number of issues have been advanced in the media by the group's members, such as two permanent spots with Rikki Blich and Dalik Volinovitz on Avri Gilad's breakfast television show. The group also works to influence decision-makers,  approaching Knesset (parliament) members and decision-makers in order to influence the agenda. 

The Media Project is generously funded by The Pratt Foundation.