An emotional image of Mohammed Salem, Ortega y Gasset winner for the photograph of a woman with her dead five-year-old niece in her arms in the morgue of a hospital in Gaza, listening to the audience's applause for her work through a friend's phone This Tuesday he summarized the philosophy of the 41st edition of the most prestigious journalism awards in Spain. Salem has not been able to leave Gaza, where more than a hundred journalists have been murdered, but it symbolized the risk that journalism faces, which the director of EL PAÍS, Pepa Bueno, had warned about minutes before, warning of “disturbing signs about freedom of the press”, the “risk of discrediting journalism” and the danger of “many libels that make a lot of money, because hate is a business.”
Bueno has based his complaint on four events that have occurred in recent months. In addition to the death of more journalists in the war in Gaza, he has denounced the attacks on freedom of expression in Italy, El Salvador and also in Spain, where he has recalled the case of threats from Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, chief of staff of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to journalists from elDiario.es and the country. “If you discredit journalism you are neutralizing the information that we can tell, that which bothers and that which does not; that is the political objective,” she said in a brief talk with journalist Carlos del Amor, in which the director of EL PAÍS defended a quality and transparent press, also editorially and financially.
The awards were presented for the first time in Barcelona, in the noble Saló de Cent of the City Hall, with the mayor of the city, Jaume Collboni, as host. Collboni started the ceremony by thanking the “journalists who risk their lives in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Mexico or in Honduras so that the truth prevails.” He has also defended a Barcelona that stands as the capital of “freedom of the press and freedom of expression, fundamental for democracy.”
Salvadoran journalists Juan José Martínez and Bryan Avelar have received recognition for the best journalistic investigation for their chronicle in three chapters Moskitia: the Honduran jungle is drowning in cocainea two-year long work published by InSight Crime which describes how drug trafficking steals the lands of the native population to spread its business. After receiving the award from Collboni, they celebrated an award that represents a “reaffirmation of the teachers to continue walking this path.” Martínez has applauded the courage of Insight Crime for betting on “long, expensive and complex investigations.” And she has reminded the “powerful, dictators, drug traffickers” who will continue to “watch” them: “Tomorrow we are going to tell her children.” Averal has pointed out that the award is also “a tap on the back” for journalism in Central America and El Salvador. “We will never be silent,” he insisted and defended, in the words of the “teacher” Alma Guillermoprieto, the obligation to “continue telling the story and telling it well.”
The award for the best multimedia coverage has gone to City without water, a town against the Concrete giant, published by N+Focus. The writer Najat El Hachmi and the athlete Mireia Belmonte have presented the recognition to Jennifer González Posadas and Alejandro Melgoza Rocha, the two journalists who have led a work in which 16 people have participated and which has taken a year to explain how financial power and real estate has been able to limit the use of water to families who have resided for generations in Xoco, in Mexico City. Melgoza wanted to recognize the help of his “families, loved ones and editorial colleagues”, but above all the courage of the Xoco town assembly, which has started a fight against the financial conglomerate Fibra UNO. Of this, his colleague Alejandro Melgoza has said that it is one among many others in the world, and that it reflects how economic power feels “untouchable” on many occasions, while political authorities “are submissive” to they. “May this report serve as support for those who fight for access to water, decent and affordable housing and a serious environment,” the journalist concluded in a shared parliament.
The moving image distributed by Reuters of a woman, Inas Abu Maamar, hugging the lifeless body of her five-year-old niece, Saly, after an Israeli attack on Gaza has convinced the jury, which has decided to give the prize for best photography to Mohammed Salem. His brother and the editor of Reuters in the Middle East and North Africa, Labib Nasir, have collected the award, presented by the philosopher Daniel Innerarity and the reader's advocate for EL PAÍS, Soledad Alcaide. “Receive the award with humility. It is not a photo to celebrate, but appreciate the recognition and the opportunity to publish it to a broader audience,” Nasir said on his behalf, hoping that the award will help raise even more awareness in the world of the effects of war. on children and the difficulties journalists face in Gaza.
The photographer Cristina García Rodero has taken over from Martín Caparrós as the award for professional career. The jury of the Ortega y Gasset Awards has valued “the valuable work of a pioneer and reference in documentary photography who continues to be a teacher of photographers today”, and who set foot in emptied Spain decades ago when that concept did not yet exist. The “little giant”—as Pepa Bueno has described her—has defended the importance of decisions to make each person's vocations a reality. After receiving the award from Bueno, she stated that she enrolled in the profession of documentary photographer based on a scholarship, and after crying at a patron saint's day party that she was photographing. “Then I knew I wanted to do that, because I said to myself: 'This is alive, it's centuries old and people don't value it, only the townspeople, and it has to be known.” Now, after 51 years of career, she states: “I want to finish what I have started.”
The event also paid tribute to the readers, through the reading of some letters to the director sent to the Opinion section. The actors Víctor Clavijo and Irene Escolar have given voice to the reflections launched by citizens.
#Ortega #Gassets #defend #good #journalism #face #misinformation #business #hate