Israeli TV station nominated for International Emmy Award
i24NEWS is being recognized for its coverage of the 2016 United States Republican National
Convention.
By AMY SPIROUpdated: AUGUST 8, 2017 17:26Emmy award statue(photo credit: VINCE BUCCI / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
In a first for any Israeli news station, i24 has been nominated for an International Emmy Award in the News category.The station, which was founded in 2013 by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, was nominated for its French-language coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, last year, led by special correspondent David Benaym. In the announcement on Monday, the New York-based International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences noted that the nominees span six countries.“In today’s political climate, a free, fearless and independent media establishment is more essential than ever to the democratic process,” said Bruce L. Paisner, president of the academy. “We salute the 2017 nominees for raising much needed awareness of critical world issues and events with their outstanding broadcast journalism.”Benaym posted the news on his Facebook page on Monday night, saying: “This is the first ever Emmy nomination for #i24NEWS, I’m so proud of the work accomplished.”In the news category, i24 was competing against a UK station’s story on Aleppo, a Brazilian station’s reporting of the scandal with Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and a station from the Philippines’ report on Typhoon Lawin.i24 runs programming based in Israel in French, English and Arabic. It has been available online and on TV in Europe and the US, but a law that passed in May would allow it to also be broadcast in Israel.Israel has had little recognition at the International Emmy Awards, which have been around since 1973, and tend to be dominated by Canadian and British entries.In fact, Israel has only won three prizes in the history of the awards. In 2013, the best documentary award went to 5 Broken Cameras, an Israeli-Palestinian film about Palestinian protests in Bil’in. The documentary was listed as French, however, due to some of the funding coming from there. In 2010, the Israeli TV show Ramzor (“Traffic Light”) won in the best comedy series category, and in 2000, the film Kapo, produced in conjunction with Germany, took the best documentary film award.
The winners of the News and Current Affairs categories will be announced in New York on October 5, alongside the domestic news Emmy Awards. The remainder of the International Emmy nominations will be announced next month and awarded on November 20.
