EL PAÍS journalist Rubén Amón wins the Francisco Cerecedo journalism award

EL PAÍS journalist Rubén Amón has picked up the Francisco Cerecedo journalism award, which the Association of European Journalists has been awarding for the past 35 years in honor of the journalist from Vigo, Cuco Cerecedo. Amón, who learned he’d won the award last July "when he was picking up his son from school," said the news came as something of a shock given the caliber of laureates over the past three decades - journalists such as Maruja Torres, Soledad Alameda and Iñaki Gabilondo, among others.

The jury praised the "brilliant talent" of the journalist, who served as newspaper El Mundo’s correspondent in Paris and in Rome. The Association of European Journalists also lauded Amón’s “versatility and ability to entertain without sacrificing rigor" in his celebrated pieces that range from bullfighting and music reviews to political profiles.

The journalist recalled his formative years in Italy in his acceptance speech during the awards gala at Madrid’s Hotel Palace - which was attended by the King and Queen. He also recalled an anecdote involving a photographer from the newspaper La Repubblica, who ordered the then Pope John Paul II: "Holiness, pretend you’re praying." They were at the altar of the basilica of San Francisco, in the Italian city of Assisi, after the earthquake that brought the roof down in 1997. Amón hopes "to be worthy of the award and the name it bears, which is a byword for honesty and integrity".