King: "Digital acceleration must not compromise the core values of journalism"

The Spanish King has said that the key role of journalism and journalists amid the digital explosion and rise of social media is to be a channel for providing news and information. At the ceremony for the King of Spain and Don Quixote International Journalism Awards, held Monday at the Casa de America in Madrid,  Felipe VI  explored how media have evolved against a backdrop of new media and new content, without losing sight of new concerns and challenges. 

This new "space has no borders,” he said, “and it connects billions of people around the world". It widens "the scope of our interests and ability to know and learn," but also " exposes us to new risks and challenges, new ambitions and uncertainties" which pose a new test for humanity "for history and the future” as we strive towards "progress and welfare". 

This new form of communication and transmission of information, “which is immediate and offers little time to reflect" enables us "to be more informed," but at the same time, "we require more sophisticated and better criteria if we are to select, filter, and, effectively, be better informed." "And there," he stressed, "is where it is crucial, once again, the role of journalism, of the journalist". 

Felipe VI argued that journalism, "to be such, needs to adhere to the strong, core values of truthfulness, accuracy, verified information, professionalism, fairness and responsibility. These are essentially the very basis of freedom of information". "And these principles are neither new nor must they ever be compromised by acceleration or modernization," he added. 

The King also lauded the quality of the winners in the field of culture. These awards, he pointed out, are "born of the Ibero-American world and and link like-minded countries". And they "encompass all the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations ​​of the world, without exception". The King added that these are "the first awards that embrace the Ibero-American world and across continents.” 

The award winners at the 34th King of Spain and Don Quixote International Journalism Awards in the category of Digital Journalism were: the Mexican Carlos Loret de Mola for TV; Jordi Basté for Radio; the Cuban Yander Zamora for photography; the Brazilian Vinicius Jorge Carneiro Sassine for Press; and Patricia Gómez for Environmental and Sustainable Development Journalism. Meanwhile, the writers Arturo Perez Reverte and Carmen Posadas received the Don Quijote Award and the Ibero-American Journalism Award, respectively. 

The reporter Goyo Rodríguez, on behalf of the El País specials team, picked up the award for the work he coordinated,  40 years after 20-N , published in the online edition of the newspaper in November 2015. Nearly a hundred people participated in this special, which features more than 50 previously unpublished texts, historical accounts from the newspaper archive, more than 600 photographs, videos and dynamic infographics, all with the goal of narrating the transformation of a country on the path, albeit not without moments of uncertainty, grief and pain, to freedom, progress and modernity. 

The ceremony was attended by the president of the Congress of Deputies, Ana Pastor, the Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alfonso Dastis, and the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Fernando Garcia Casas, as well as a broad representation from the world of news journalism. 

The King of Spain International Journalism Awards, convened by EFE and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), seek to pay tribute to the work of professional journalists from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries that make up the Iberoamerican community and from nations with which Spain maintains historical ties. 

Minister Alfonso Dastis highlighted the Ibero-American nature of the awards, noting that the ceremony was being held at the Casa America, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Dastis echoed the King’s sentiment ("Spain is an Ibero-American nation") in his speech and stressed the Efe Agency’s commitment to the truth. The minister closed his speech with the words of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who claimed to prefer newspapers without a government to a government without newspapers. 

Meanwhile, Efe President, José Antonio Vera, praised the quality of the winning works and championed the values ​​that must also accompany journalism as it faces new phenomena such as social media, "that magnificent and direct channel of communication of the  21st century". And he spoke of “post-truth, which has opened the door to an alternative reality." "Post-truth is the cult of non-truth, of sensationalism," he added.

Each of the awards, sponsored by international construction and concessions group OHL, is endowed with 6,000 euros and a bronze commemorative sculpture by artist Joaquin Vaquero Turcios. The Environmental Journalism Award  is sponsored by the Foundation Aquae, while the Don Quixote Award for Journalism, endowed with 9,000 euros and a commemorative sculpture, is funded by the Spanish public company Tragsa.