Israeli newspaper correspondent Gideon Levy and his colleague on Palestinian television Daoud Kuttab report from the occupied areas of Palestina, focusing not on their respective adversaries but on “their own people.”

Gideon Levy

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist from Tel Aviv and works for the Haaretz daily as editor-in-chief of its weekend supplement. He is one of the few Israeli journalists to report on the lives of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and is the frequent target of attacks by Israeli readers and colleagues because of his critical reporting. Gideon Levy  investigates in Palestinian areas, giving Israelis a view of the situation unhindered by military censorship.

His reporting often sides with Palestinian victims. He tells, for instance, about the Palestianian farmer who was shot by Jewish settlers on his own land and now lives in a wheelchair, or about the widow of a Fatah leader who was liquidated by Israeli security forces.

Haaretz is being put under pressure to silence Gideon Levy.

This was reason enough for the Foundation Council of the Media Foundation to award Gideon Levy and Daoud Kuttab the “1st Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media” with a total purse of 15,000 euros. Only when the critical self-appraisal of one’s own behavior goes before assigning the blame to others will peace be possible in the Middle East. Gideon Levy and Daoud Kuttab are exemplary models of this approach.

www.haaretz.com

Daoud Kuttab

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Ramallah, Palestine. He dedicates his work to the fight against Palestinian and Israeli censorship and for freedom of the press in the Middle East, having reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for over twenty years now. He is often put under pressure and subject to hostility from his own Palestinian camp.

Kuttab established an online media outlet in order to circumvent Palestinian censors. He is co-director of Internews Middle East, an NGO in Jerusalem promoting independent media and journalists in the Middle East. He is also the founder of the Arabic Media Internet Network (AMIN, www.amin.org), providing journalists in the Arab world with uncensored news content on the Web.

Daoud Kuttab likewise founded the Jerusalem Film Institute and the first Internet radio station in the Arab world, AmmanNet (www.ammannet.net).

His unflagging support for freedom of the press and speech has played an important role in developing independent Palestinian media and has helped spread these liberty rights in the entire Middle East.

This was reason enough for the Foundation Council of the Media Foundation to award Daoud Kuttab and Gideon Levy the “1st Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media” with a total purse of 15,000 euros. Only when the critical self-appraisal of one’s own behavior goes before assigning the blame to others will peace be possible in the Middle East. Gideon Levy and Daoud Kuttab are exemplary models of this approach.

www.amin.org

Vladimir Mostovoy (Chief Editor of the Ukrainian daily Zerkalo Nedeli)
supports the development of a politically independent journalism in his country.

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“Netzwerk Recherche e.V.” (the Research Network Society) with its chairman Dr. Thomas Leif is committed to improving the quality of research and investigative journalism in Germany.

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The Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig honors the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy and the Palestine journalist Daoud Kuttab for their selfless struggle for the freedom of speech in the Middle East. Second Prize goes to the Ukrainian Chief Editor Vladimir Mostowoj (Zerkalo Nedeli, Kiew); Third Prize for the German Netzwerk Recherche .

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