Last update - 00:00 22/11/2006
Haaretz journalists Ruth Sinai, Uzi Benziman win Sokolow prize
By Asaf Carmel, Haaretz Correspondent
Haaretz journalists Ruth Sinai and Uzi Benziman are the 2006 winners of the Sokolow Prize for journalism.
Sinai, Haaretz's correspondent on social issues, won the prize for her "singular contribution to placing issues involving the weaker groups in Israeli society on the public agenda," the judges wrote.
The judges praised Benziman's "piercing" writing, and noted that "for years he has uncovered the shortcomings in all areas of the establishment."
The committee, chaired by journalist Emanuel Halperin, included Nahum Barnea, and Dalia Neuman. along with Dr. Amal Jamal of Tel Aviv University, and historian Professor Daniel Gutwein of the University of Haifa.
Sinai served for nine years as the national security correspondent for The Associated Press in Washington, and became social affairs correspondent at Haaretz on her return to Israel. Ahead of the last elections she moved to the working-class Negev town of Yeruham for two months to report on the local atmosphere. During the second Lebanon war, she was stationed in the bombarded areas of the North.
Benziman began his career in 1963 as a Jerusalem-based stringer for Maariv. He later worked for the Itim news agency and the newspaper Herut. In 1965 he began to write for Haaretz as a municipal reporter in Jerusalem. Over the years he has served as parliamentary correspondent, Washington correspondent and editor of Haaretz Magazine. For the past two years he has focused on commentary and also serves as editor of the Hebrew-language periodical on Israeli media Ha'ayin Hashvi'it, published by the Israel Democracy Institute.