History

Born in 1995 from an idea of the cultural association Comunità Aperta from Riccione, the Award is dedicated to the memory of Rai reporter Ilaria Alpi, who was killed in Somalia on 20th March 1994 together with the freelance cameraman Miran Hrovatin. For nearly sixteen years, the Award has been one of the most important national venues for discussion and reflection on report journalism.

The Ilaria Alpi Award is an initiative of the Emilia Romagna Region, the Province of Rimini, and the Municipality of Riccione. It provides opportunities for debate and discussion and features a competition divided into sections whose aim is to give recognition and celebrate the work of those committed to television investigative journalism on the issues of peace and solidarity. Since its beginning, the Award has sought to promote and defend this way of doing journalism through meetings, round tables, exhibitions, events and reviews.

In 1996 the Ilaria Alpi Observatory was created to collect all the material from the Award in a video library, which today has also become the headquarters of an observatory on the Ilaria Alpi Case. Since 2008, the catalogues of the Ilaria Alpi Award’s archives are included in the Library Network of Romagna: http://opac.provincia.ra.it

Since 2008, the finalist videos in the Ilaria Alpi Award are accessible online at the Video Library of the Emilia Romagna’s Legislative Assembly

In 2001, the Ilaria Alpi Television Jounalist Award, in collaboration with Giorgio and Luciana Alpi, Ilaria’s parents, created the website www.ilariaalpi.it with the aim of fostering discussion on the terrible events that hit the Italian journalist and the cameraman Miran Hrovatin. The website director is Italo Moretti.  

Since 2003, the Award’s audiovisual archives and organizational secretary are housed in a beautiful nineteenth century mansion, Villa Lodi Fè, recently restored and owned by the Municipality of Riccione.

In 2005 the Ilaria Alpi/Comunità Aperta Association was created and in 2006 it produced a report and photographic exhibition entitled "In Somalia" as the result of a journey along the footsteps of  Ilaria and Miran. 
For over 14 years, the Ilaria Alpi case has been at the core of the Association’s activities. Two of the founders of the Ilaria Alpi Award, Pasquale D'Alessio and Francesco Cavalli, are the script writers and directors of a theatrical performance on the Ilaria Alpi case entitled “Occhi Scritti” (Written eyes), starring actress Lella Costa.

Because of its all-round commitment to social communication, in 2009 the Ilaria Alpi Association took part in a European project. The result was the creation of Citylab.tv, a website on citizen journalism, ideated and promoted in cooperation with Agoravox France.

Since 2008, the Ilaria Alpi Association, which was not unfamiliar with training experiences also in previous years, organizes a Winter School on television investigative journalism together with the Catholic University of Milan and cooperates with the Award “Una storia ancora da raccontare” (A story still to be told) addressed to students in journalism and communication and junior journalists at the Journalism Festival of Perugia.

"Frame, frammenti di guerra" (Fragments of war) was the first exhibition made by the Ilaria Alpi Award, while its latest exhibition was entitled "Il giornalismo che non muore" (The journalism that won’t die), a journey into report journalism through the sacrifice of 17 correspondents. 

"I taccuini del Premio Ilaria Alpi" (The notebooks of the Ilaria Alpi Award) is a series born in 2006 which collects in notebooks the issues addressed during the days of the Ilaria Alpi Award. The first volume of the series is entitled "Le periferie dell'informazione" (The outskirts of information) (Edizioni Paoline). In 2007, the volume "Informazione e Lavoro" (Information and work) was published, while "Giornalismi&Mafie" (Journalisms and mafias) was published in 2008. The fourth notebook “Africa e media” (Africa and the media) came out in 2009, edited by the journalist Mauro Sarti and with an unpublished work by Rizard Kapuscinsky.

Several other previous publications by the Award are also worth mentioning. In 2003 the volume "L'informazione deviata" (Distorted information) was produced for Baldini e Castoldi and in 2005 the Award cooperated with Mariangela Gritta Grainer in the realisation of her book "Ilaria Alpi. Una donna, la sua storia" (Ilaria Alpi, a woman, her story) published by Aliedizioni. In 2009 the Award cooperated in the realisation of “Carte False” (False papers), a book written by more authors that recounts the facts of the Ilaria Alpi case.

Also in 2009 the Ilaria Alpi Award cooperated in the realisation of the first “Atlante delle Guerre e dei Conflitti nel Mondo” (Atlas of worldwide wars and conflicts).

The Ilaria Alpi Association often takes part in meetings and debates on journalism with its own publications, exhibitions and public screenings. In 2009, for instance, it joined several initiatives, from the Journalism Festival of Perugia to the International Festival of Ferrara, the National Festival of the Democratic Party in Genoa, the Book Fair of Turin and the Fair of Small and Medium Sized Publishing Houses of Rome.

In 2010 the Ilaria Alpi Award is in its 16th edition. From 18th to 20th June, Riccione will be the capital city of information.