This year’s winners of the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards granted by El País demonstrate that, Faced with “apocalyptic” messages about the present and future of journalism, journalism is “more alive than ever and remains as necessary as ever.”
This has been pointed out by the director of El País, Pepa Bueno, during the awards ceremony for the thirty-ninth edition, which for the first time in its history have left Madrid to be held at the Communications Palace in Valenciawhere the face-to-face format has been recovered after two years of absence due to the pandemic.
The award for the best journalistic investigation has been for El País for the investigation on pederasty in the Spanish Church; to the best multimedia coverage has fallen on the portal divergent for a paper on the repression in Nicaragua, and the best photography in an image of the EFE Agency of a Mexican cancer patient who underwent a bilateral mastectomy.
David Beriain and Roberto Fraile
One of the most emotional moments of the ceremony was the delivery of the award for professional career, which was awarded posthumously to David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, killed in April 2021 while working in Burkina Faso and whose coverage of forgotten conflicts has been highlighted.
David Beriain’s widow, Rosaura Romero, said upon receiving the Ortega y Gasset Prize: “His death has been an irreparable loss for us and for the most restless journalism that tries to understand closely how complex reality can be. David had as a precept of life not to judge. We hope that his passion and his know-how will inspire new generations. Let there be relays of all the great journalists who have given their lives for this profession. In five months, 26 journalists have been murdered. Twice as much as in all of 2021. With each one that dies, we relive the death of all the others.”
Roberto Fraile’s mother, Lidia Marcos, when collecting the award for professional career awarded to her son: “The day they told us that Roberto had been awarded the prize was his birthday. We feel sad because we wish they hadn’t had to award it so soon. Thank you for this award that highlights your work and that of the journalists who have lost their lives for doing their job well. We hope that their deaths will serve for us to evaluate journalism with capital letters.”
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