Vienna (OTS) - The "Ari Rath Prize for Critical Journalism" was set up on the basis of a private initiative, in the spirit of the well-known former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, who died in January 2017, to honor journalists whose work focuses on a critical and reporting on flight, expulsion and asylum that is committed to protecting human rights in an outstanding manner. The committed and successful publicist Ari Rath was expelled by force on November 2, 1938 as a child at the age of 13 after the National Socialists took power and found a new home in Palestine and later in the State of Israel. He belonged to the generation of well-known politicians Yitzchak Rabin, Teddy Kollek and Shimon Peres and was an advisor to Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister from 1948. In recent years, Ari Rath has lived mostly in Vienna and has acted as a critical admonisher for democratic and peaceful cooperation between the people in Israel and in Austria. As a witness to the National Socialist terror, he repeatedly pleaded for the absolute rejection of racism and xenophobia, which he conveyed as a message in many lectures and discussions with schoolchildren, going beyond anti-Semitism.
A jury of experts chaired by Gertraud Auer Borea d'Olmo, Secretary General of the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue and a close confidante of Ari Rath, unanimously awarded Dr.in Alexandra Föderl-Schmid the first "Ari Rath Prize for critical journalism". “ awarded. She helped shape the daily newspaper “Der Standard” for almost three decades, being the first woman in Austria to be editor-in-chief since 2007 and co-editor since 2012. Since November 1, 2017 she has been working as a correspondent in Israel for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Since the beginning of her professional journalistic work in 1990 - first in Linz, then in Berlin and in Brussels - Föderl-Schmid has always emphatically campaigned for the defense of human rights in the migration and asylum debate, which has been fiercely politically contested since 1990, and precisely that humanistic ideal that Ari Rath upheld throughout his life. It is no coincidence that she has met him many times over the past few years to seek his advice in the turbulent present. In this sense, there is a close personal connection to the namesake of the award. The fact that she is reporting from Israel today presents the award winner with new challenges that also have to do with the life story of Ari Rath, who is committed to a peaceful and permanent solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The prize, donated by a friend of Ari's, will be presented on May 3, 2018 - on Press Freedom Day - at Radio Kulturhaus in cooperation with ORF III. Federal Chancellor aD Dr. Franz Vranitzky will hold the laudatory speech for the award winner.
Questions & contact:
Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue
Gertraud Auer Borea d'Olmo
Mobile: 0664 831 0060
kreiskyforum@kreisky.org
www.kreisky-forum.org
https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20171102_OTS0006/ari-rath-preis-fuer-kritischen-journalismus