The jury, headed by Giancarlo Elia Valori, has chosen the winner underscoring the “validity of his polyhedral commitment as a financier, economist, publicist and producer/editor in the communication and media world at an international level. Informed via telephone, the financier expressed satisfaction and pride.

Tarak Ben Ammar is the winner of the International Mediterranean Ischia Prize. It was decided by the jury of the prestigious recognition, gathered this morning al the Palazzo dell’Informazione of Adnkronos. The jury headed by Giancarlo Elia Valori is composed of the secretary general of the Ischia Prize Alfonzo Ruffo, director of Il Denaro; writer David Grossman; the SIAE President, Giorgio Assumma; the Adnkronos Editor, Giuseppe Marra; director of the TG5, Clemente Mimun; the director of the TG2, Mario Orfeo; the Director of the Messagero, Roberto Napoletano; the Ex-President of the Constitutional Court, Annibale Marini; the director of the magazine Le Formiche, Paolo Messa; the direttore of the Roma Newspaper, Antonio Sasso; the Director of the Corriere del Mezzogiorno, Marco Demarco; the Chief Editor of Rai Mediterraneo, Giancarlo Licata; and the Responsible for AnsaMed, and Massimo Milone, head of the editing and drafting for Rai in Campania.

Informed via telephone, by President Valori, Ben Ammar expressed statisfaction and pride for the prize that was conferred to him.

The jury chose Ben Ammar because of the “validity of his polyhedral commitment as a financier, economist, publicist, producer/editor in the communication and media world at an international level” – among other reasons – “he became by unanimous opinion of the conscious public, the hinge in the realization - through a fully expressed fruitful cultural activity - of the real and long awaited for union of the Mediterranean.” “Tarak Ben Ammar,” the jury continues, “is not only a great leader in Europe, Africa, and in the Mediterranean, but is a man inclusive by nature and choice, an excellent social communicator, a man who desired and was capable of creating an exclusive and appreciated ‘Mediterranean television broadcaster’ in order to open the minds of the people of the Maghreb towards new cultural horizons. Intent on eliminating age old ethnic discriminations, and in the fervor of attaining a common space in civilization, progress and peaceful co-inhabitance among peoples.”

The jury has further decided that they have in addition conferred the award “in recognition of his great merits acquired with deep dedication to professional prerogatives that he reverberates with ethical-cultural completeness in daily life, contributing with a creative television activity to the social growth of young generations residing in the southern part of the vast Mediterranean.” Finally, the jury has underlined that Tarak Ben Ammar “is capable of an uncommon socio-cultural sensibility aimed at soliciting emotions through original expressions creative and artistic institutions. As a cinema and television producer of considerable notoriety in Italy and around the world, he has sent out a message of fraternity and peace with projections in the historic mission of love that his films express without reducing space and time.” Ben Ammar, 60 years old, is a Tunisian movie producer, naturalized Frenchmen, and entrepreneur in the television finance sector, owner of the Quinta Communications production and distribution company. Nephew of Bourguiba, the first President of Independent Tunisia, he is famous for his interest in artistic films, especially when they are tied to Mediterranean culture and require North African settings for filming. Excellent speaker of the Italian language, in the last thirty years he has produced circa seventy films by famous Italian directors from Comencini to Zeffirelli, from Rossellini to Campanile. Among his works is the movie version of La Traviata, by Franco Zeffirelli, and his recent production Baaria by Giuseppe Tornatore. In France he was noticed in 2004, for his decision to distribute the film Mel Gibson film The Passion, even though the film was accompanied by much controversy. His interests go beyond cinema, and in fact he is the consultant to Prince Al-Walid bin Talal and the French entrepreneur Vincent Bollore. In Italy his is a part of the council of Mediobanca. Further more he is the owner of the sports channel SportItalia and has recently created the television channel Nessma Tv, directed to the people of the Maghreb. He was friend and ex manager to Michael Jackson.