Com-St-05-12-02-PremioPadovaniENG.pdf
Communication is efficacious only if it has the power to become information, news and factual reports. That is the message, firm and authoritative that already distinguished “Sicilia Madre Mediterranea” International Journalism Prize in its first edition. The Sicilian Agricultural Assessorate in collaboration with the Touring Club Italiano and the Italian Buon Ricordo Foundation organized the competition aimed at promoting, according to the prize’s statement of purpose, “communications activities in European Union and other countries directed at diffusing knowledge, image, cultural heritage and products of the Sicilian wine-culinary tradition.”
The jury, headed by Erich B. Kusch, a historic figure in European journalism since he has served six terms as president of the foreign press in Italy, evaluated a hundred television programs and articles dedicated to Sicilian agriculture and its premium products. All authors and media enjoy outstanding reputations.
The first prize was attributed to the French editor Marcelle Padovani of the Nouvel Observateur for an article, “Le Raisins du succès” dedicated to the Sicilian wine sector. According to the jury’s citation, the article recognized “the equilibrium between the old and new, the past and the present, without resorting to clichés. It offered foreign readers a new look at one aspect of agriculture and at the island in general. The article stood out for its original approach, serious documentation and emphasis upon the role of women in the wine sector.”
The recognition conferred on Marcelle Padovani, a highly regarded journalist, assumes extraordinary importance for the quality wine movement on the island. Reporting the evolution of the wine industry on Sicily through the entrepreneurial experience of some women active in the sector provides an efficacious key to understanding the sense of a reality that is constantly developing and in which many generations have been involved in the affirmation of Sicilian wines throughout the world.
“I’m overjoyed by the recognition attributed to Marcelle Padovani,” said José Rallo of Donnafugata, “first of all because a woman journalist has been honored. Then, the international journalism award was assigned to an authoritative journalist that dedicated to Sicily and its protagonists coverage of the finest moments in her career, her interviews with Leonardo Sciascia and Giovanni Falcone. Finally, the report fully revealed the identity of the Donnafugata entrepreneurial project, its methods and its rapport with the territory. In short, a thousand thanks to Marcelle Padovani.”
The second-place award in the international section went to Dutch journalist Thomas Harder, correspondent for Politiken—Denmark’s most important newspaper—for a series of four articles of which one was dedicated to the links between wine, literature and films that Donnafugata through its support for the Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Award has promoted worldwide.
Public Relations:
Baldo M. Palermo [email protected] tel. 0039 0923 7242267
Laura Ellwanger [email protected] te. 0039 0923 724258
