MADRID, 20 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Cristina García Rodero, ‘InSigth Crime’, ‘N Focus’ and Mohammed Salem have been recognized by the jury of the 41st edition of the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards, meeting this Wednesday at the headquarters of ‘El País’ in Madrid.
As reported by the PRISA group, the Ortega y Gasset Award in the category of Best journalistic story or investigation has gone to ‘Moskitia: the Honduran jungle is drowning in cocaine’, by Bryan Avelar and Juan José Martínez and published in InSight Crime.
The three-chapter report tells how the indigenous population of Moskitia, on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua, faces poverty caused by land theft by drug traffickers. The jury highlighted “the completeness of a report that covers cross-cutting themes of our time such as drug trafficking, the environment or the threat that looms over ancestral cultures.” “It exhaustively describes day-to-day life in a region ravaged by drugs and forgotten by institutions,” he added.
For its part, in the category of Best multimedia coverage, PRISA has detailed that the award went to ‘City without water, a town against the concrete giant’, by Jennifer González Posadas and Alejandro Melgoza Rocha and published in N Focus . The multimedia special describes the struggle of the people of San Sebastián Xoco, who live south of Mexico City, against a large real estate group. In a few years, they have been surrounded by office towers and shopping centers that have cornered the population and have appropriated the natural resources of the environment, as he has pointed out.
In this case, the jury highlighted that this journalistic work “uses and combines different narrative resources with effectiveness and originality to tell a story that, from a specific case of a small community, offers a complete vision that goes far beyond management of access to a basic good such as water”. “It also speaks of the unequal struggle between that small community of neighbors and a large business conglomerate and the courage of those who stand up against a giant to claim an essential means,” he added.
Likewise, the jury has awarded a special mention to ‘The life of Jebreel: diary of an uncomfortable witness to the war in Gaza’, from Spanish Radio Television (RTVE). The jury valued “the brilliant combination of different narrative tools – especially the integration of video – to tell this story starring local reporter Jebreel Abu Kmail.”
He has also highlighted that it is a report that “serves as a tribute to all the journalists who are reporting from the field while risking their lives and that of their families. And, especially, to the more than 100 journalists who have lost their lives to date.” moment in this conflict.”
Regarding the Ortega y Gasset Award for Best Photography, PRISA has pointed out that it has gone to Mohammed Salem for an image in which a woman, Inas Abu Maamar, hugs the lifeless body of her five-year-old niece Saly, wrapped in a shroud, in the Nasser hospital in Gaza. The photo was taken on October 17, distributed by Reuters and published in numerous media around the world.
The jury noted that it is “an overwhelming image with enormous force about what is happening in Gaza.” “It is the pain, it is the emptiness and it is the horror of someone who seems to embrace the impossible: recovering the girl’s life. And it is not only what counts, but how he tells it: from sobriety and without even showing a face,” he said.
The Ortega y Gasset Award for Professional Career, unanimously, went to Cristina García Rodero. The photojournalist, who has dedicated her career to investigating and photographing popular celebrations and religious and pagan traditions in Spain and around the world, was the first Spanish photographer for the Magnum Agency.
The jury highlighted “the valuable work of a pioneer and reference in documentary photography, who continues to be a teacher of photographers today.” “Cristina García Rodero tells what remains: traditions, folklore or customs in different places around the world. She has portrayed corners where no one had gone decades before the concept of emptied Spain appeared. With more than 50 years of trajectory, her figure is a vindication of the journalistic genealogy of women,” she stated.
This year’s jury was made up of Óscar García Maceiras, CEO of Inditex; Mireia Belmonte, Olympic swimming medalist; Daniel Innerarity, philosopher; Najat el Hachmi, writer; Pepa Bueno, director of EL PAÍS; Soledad Alcaide, reader advocate for EL PAÍS; Yolanda Clemente, journalist and member of the newspaper’s Editorial Committee, and Pedro Zuazua, member of the PRISA Media Communication team, who served as secretary of the non-voting jury.
For the first time in its 41-year history, the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards will be presented in Barcelona, ??with the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Council being the place that will host the awards ceremony on April 23.
Subsequently, a cocktail will be offered to celebrate the festival of Sant Jordi, patron saint of Catalonia, which also coincides with International Book Day, with the attendance of representatives from the world of culture, politics, economics and journalism. Furthermore, during the days prior to the awards ceremony, ‘El País’ will organize several meetings and activities with the winners, open to Barcelona civil society.
Created in 1984 in memory of the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, the awards highlight the defense of freedoms, independence, rigor and honesty as essential virtues of journalism. Each category has a prize of 15,000 euros and the winners also receive a work by Eduardo Chillida.
