In 2012, he became the first journalist in Israel to be charged and convicted under the country’s Espionage Act for possession of classified information after exposing that the Israeli Defense Forces conducted and covered up unlawful targeted assassinations in the West Bank. Blau has reported on a wide range of topics, uncovering a number of corruption scandals involving top government and military officials. He also has worked as an analyst for Japan’s Fuji TV, Britain’s Channel 4 and other international media outlets. Blau will study entrepreneurial models for a sustainable, independent nonprofit investigative news platform in Israel and how that could form a base for cooperation among journalists from the Middle East.