Demystifying: Israeli Media and Threats to Israeli Press Freedoms

Alan Abbey, MS ’77, Shalom Hartman Institute
Israeli Media and Threats to Israeli Press Freedoms

J100: Media Professions, Thursday, November 16, 2–3 p.m., 150 Columbia Hall

Alan D. Abbey is director of media at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, which he joined in 2008 after a 30-year career in journalism in the United States and Israel. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the SOJC. He founded Ynetnews and was executive vice president at the Jerusalem Post. He is also an adjunct professor of Journalism at National University of San Diego and ethics lecturer for the Getty School of Citizen Journalism in the Middle East and North Africa. He was a leader of the Online News Association’s digital ethics team, which created the “Build Your Own” Ethics Code course and website, and he chaired the Hartman Institute-American Jewish Press Association Ethics Project. He is the author of Journey of Hope: The Story of Ilan Ramon, Israel’s First Astronaut.  A native of Brooklyn, New York, Abbey lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.

Israeli journalists are among the most aggressive, intense, politicized, opinionated, and competitive media professionals anywhere. They differ from American media in significant ways. This talk will look at this landscape and threats to press freedoms in Israel, as well as the media’s responses to these challenges.