The Ilaria Alpi Prize, established in 1995, is an initiative organised by the Cultural Association “Comunità Aperta”.
The Prize is dedicated to Ilaria Alpi, the Italian journalist killed in Mogadishu in 1994, together with the cameraman Miran Hrovatin. Ilaria Alpi carried out her profession with rare dedication and sense of ethics and the Award was born for enhancing the report journalism, connected with a deep and reliable sense of fact, to help and reflect upon the events. Is a Prize aiming at valuing a clear and intelligent information, capable of studying facts in depth and courage, so as to promote that journalism which is always able to find out and tell any possible truth.
The Ilaria Alpi Award involves all the most important Italian, national and regionalbroadcasting services thanks to the collaboration with the Press Association of each region and includes, besides several moments of debates, a competition for television reports which deal with topics of civil and social engagement (peace, justice, non-violence, human rights, solidarity). The programmes are evaluated on the basis of the content and their journalistic value, and therefore, the lack of technologically advanced instrumentation does not play any role. An award – named after Miran Hrovatin – is dedicated to cameraman, the programmes being rated for the quality of the proposed images.
The main exponents of the Italian journalism take part in the Jury of the Prize, chaired by Italo Moretti and composed by Ettore Mo, special correspondent for Corriere della Sera, Luca Ajroldi, journalist and TMC News ex-Director, Alessandro Banfi, TG 5 Assistant Director, Claudio Brachino, Studio Aperto assistant Director, Angela Buttiglione, TGR Rai Director, Emilio Carelli, Sky TG 24 Director, Antonio Di Bella, TG 3 Director, Emilio Fede, TG 4 Director, Giovanna Lio, Sky TG 24 Chief Editor, Mauro Mazza, TG 2 Director, Paolo Meucci, Advisor for TG 2 Dossier, Clemente Mimun, TG 1 Director, Paola Palombaro, TG La 7 Chief Editor, Andrea Vianello, journalist and Rai Tre Anchorman, Romano Tamberlich, Chief Editor Sky Italia, and for the Miran Hrovatin Prize, the cameramen Stefano Paolillo and Gianfranco Rados.
A special Award is also provided for reporting carried out by journalists younger than 32 years of age (the age of Ilaria Alpi when she was murdered). This Prize is awarded by a jury exclusively composed by students of secondary schools. Since 2002 edition, the Award also took advantage of the collaboration of Italian television critics, who picked out five reports each, which could also have been realised by journalists not participating in the competition. The most frequently chosen report obtaines the Critic’s Award.
In 1996 was born the Ilaria Alpi Observatory, a thorough video library that gathers all library footages and old files of the Award. Also, this is the seat of an informational observatory that manages a weblog dealt with the press freedom situation (www.ilariaalpi.org). From the 2002 the Observatory is involved in video production dedicated to social matters and mass media such as Congo : the first video production realized with the cooperation of WWF and Coopi.
All the reports received are collected in the archives of the Observatory. The archives are open to the public with particular reference to schools and young groups interested in social themes. The reports could be shown and displayed for didactic, seminary and study purposes, and therefore form an important patrimony for schools.
In 2001 the Ilaria Alpi Journalistic Television Award, in collaboration with Ilaria’s parents Giorgio and Luciana Alpi, realised the website www.ilariaalpi.it in order to stimulate the debate on the dramatic matter that implicated the journalist and the cameraman Miran Hrovatin.