Our challenge is to promote a change in the essence and perception of journalism - from a consumer good into a joint public mission. We believe that a collaboration between professional journalists and the public can create quality journalism that will fill the quantitative and qualitative absence and promote the common good.

The Movement for Public Journalism is a non-profit organization that was established in 2015 with a mission to deal with the deep crisis in Israeli journalism. As part of this crisis, the Israeli journalism fails to fully serve the public - both at the national and local level. The crisis damages democracy, social resilience and affects the lives of all Israelis.

The Movement, co-founded by Yair Tarchitsky, Chairman of the Union of Journalists in Israel, and Yoav Ribak, Head of News Division at Yedioth Ahronoth, aims to involve as many people from as many communities as possible in the act of journalism in order to create a pluralistic, fact-based, inclusive conversation.

The Movement for Public Journalism

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Our fundamental principles for action

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Public-funded journalism: our public-funded membership model strengthens the bond with the community and minimizes outside interference. We hope that within three years, the lion’s share of our activity will be funded by the members of the movement.

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Journalism for the public: Nonprofit, public service journalism

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Journalism by the public: Journalists and the public working together on joint investigative projects, along with energizing the public to share their skills and resources for journalistic activism

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Journalism of the public: Membership model that belongs to the public, where all are welcome to participate

Our Activities

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“Journalism, for a Change”

Currently, the core of our activity. A comprehensive, six-month program that provides an innovative platform for social activism using journalism tools. Participants are mentored by Israel’s leading journalists in small groups, and acquire skills that enhance their ability to effectively participate in their society. Activists from diverse communities and fields of expertise join journalists to develop investigative projects. Products of this program are often published in high-profile media outlets, highlighting the public’s role, and empowering groups of young adults to stay involved, contribute to the public discourse and make a change/impact.

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Journalistic Activism Workshops

An intensive set of four meetings in which participants are familiarised with, and practice the fundamentals of journalistic activism. The workshop, tailored to many different types of organizations and communities provides essential tools and ideas for storytelling in an impactful way.

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Hackiton (Iton, Hebrew for Newspaper)

Ad Hoc, local events that invite the community to collaborate with its local or national journalists around a chosen issue or geographic element. These events often include roundtable discussions on issues raised by the public and might be missed by the media. This unique, singular meeting connects between segments of the society that might have no other intersection to space to meet if not for this timely event. Lastly, it provides a chance for stories to emerge and a stronger bond between the journalists and the activists in the community.

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The Newspaper

A social-economic newsletter with the day’s most important headlines. The Newspaper aims to contribute to responsible, thoughtful journalistic content, provide context and encourage/suggest ways to become more involved in the community. The Newspaper was sent daily to more than 12,000 subscribers (with a weekly English version). The Newspaper is currently on leave and we wish to restart it in 2021.

Our prominent stories

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Gaps in the Israeli public health system: TheMarker’s health correspondent Ronny Linder teamed up with our movement’s activists who made 500 phone calls to schedule a specialist doctor appointment. The results reflected how your appointment date fluctuates depending on the city, type of doctor and health service. The project became a front page headline, spread between pages 2-5 and featured on the front page of the parent newspaper “Haaretz”.

The Political Twitter Project: We analyzed tweets of Israeli ministers during the pandemic in order to check what issues they chose to express themselves. “Yoman Ha Boker” of the Public Broadcast Corporation, Israel’s highest rated morning radio program, featured the project on the show.

Business owners in the south of Israel compensated for the first time for losing work under COVID-19. A series of interviews and analysis conducted by members of our Be’er Sheva group was featured on Mako.co.il.

Our program’s participants and journalist Tzlil Avraham of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation investigated how the laid off workers of the Polgat factory were doing, ten years after the factory closed. The work produced an episode for “Hayot Kiss”, the most popular podcast in Israel.