‘100 Day of Transparency’ website founder to be awarded DIGIT Prize for online journalism

The prize will be awarded during the fifth annual DIGIT conference, the only press conference dealing exclusively with online media.

By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZI
Updated: MARCH 30, 2016 05:43
Writing on a computer keyboard [Illustrative] (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Writing on a computer keyboard [Illustrative]
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
The 2016 DIGIT Prize for online journalism will be awarded to journalist Tomer Avital, founder of the site 100 Days of Transparency, it was announced Tuesday.
“Tomer Avital harnessed the digital platform to promote transparency in the political system in Israel. Avital generates significant investigations, which are balanced, and collaborates with a variety of media outlets, and he has become an influential independent journalist. All this, while taking care to use every tool offered by this platform, from effective use of mass funding, information collection and distribution of its journalistic output,” the prize committee said.
The Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and Google teamed up to award the NIS 15,000 prize for journalists and publications engaged in online journalism.
“In such a challenging time for the Israeli media, it is encouraging to discover just how much digital journalism activity has developed and how it becomes more significant from year to year,” the prize committee said.
Avital was selected from dozens of nominees by the prize committee consisting of Noam Lemelshtrich Latar, dean of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Paul Solomon, head of Communications & Public Affairs for Israel, the Middle East, Africa, Greece & Turkey at Google, and Roy Katz, founder and producer of the DIGIT conference.
“The journalistic activities of Tomer Avital in digital journalism are a marker for ethical, quality and effective independent journalism,” they said.
The prize will be awarded during the fifth annual DIGIT conference, the only conference dealing exclusively with online media, set to take place April 4 at the IDC.
The conference will focus on the major issues that concern digital media in Israel and abroad and will include media master classes by senior industry executives such as journalists, editors, designers and programmers, panel discussions and lectures.
Past recipients of the award include the Hebrew website Hamakom Hachi Ham Bage’henom [The Hottest Place in Hell] and its two founders – Irit Dolev and Einat Fishbein, and Channel 2 political correspondent Amit Segal, who won last year.