Pilar Bonet wins the International Press Club best reporter award

Pilar Bonet, EL PAÍS’s correspondent in Moscow, has been awarded the prize for best Spanish correspondent by the International Press Club. The organization also paid tribute to Rosa Maria Veloso, who has been the correspondent for Radio Television Portuguesa (RTP) in Spain since 2005, Miguel Angel Aguilar, Secretary General of the Spanish Section of the Association of European Journalists, and the Efe agency, which in 2014 celebrates 75 years since its foundation.

Bonet, who holds a degree in Spanish and Information Sciences, began her career as a journalist at the newspapers Baleares and Ultima Hora; she subsequently joined El Periodico and, in 1980, was appointed Efe’s correspondent in Vienna. Three years later she was posted to Moscow as a correspondent for EL PAÍS. An expert on the transition in the Soviet Union, she has published books such as Imagenes sobre fondo rojo, on Gorbachev's perestroika, and La Rusia imposible: Boris Yeltsin, un provinciano en el Kremlin (Impossible Russia: Boris Yeltsin, a provincial in the Kremlin), which recounts the history of the USSR from 1976 to 1993 .

The winner of the award for best foreign correspondent based in Spain, Rosa Maria Veloso, Is a reporter for Radio Television Portuguesa (RTP) and has worked in Spain since 2005. Over the course of these these nine years she has become, thanks to her live reports from Madrid and other parts Spain, one of the most knowledgeable journalists on Spanish affairs, which she communicates to listeners in her neighboring Portugal, according to the jury. Veloso was born in Guarda, near the border with Salamanca. She began her career in Radio Renascença and has spent practically her entire career at the RTP.

Miguel Angel Aguilar was awarded the prize for an entire career dedicated to journalism. After nearly 50 years in the world of journalism, Aguilar "is one of the journalists who has lived and narrated in the first person the most important events in the recent history of our country," according to the International Press Club. "His great personality and his critical and independent spirit has led him to being tried by the Court of Public Order and even to facing a military tribunal," they added. He has worked as correspondent in London and Brussels and developed his long career in newspapers, agencies, radio and television. Since its founding in 1981, he has been Secretary General  of the Spanish Section of the Association of European Journalists. He was also board member of the newspaper Diario Madrid and the Foundation that brought together those who worked at the newspaper championing basic freedoms. He chairs the Fundacion Carlos de Amberes, where he has given talks and seminars on European integration.

The award for a company, institution or a person who has most championed and defended the media went to the Efe agency, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. It is the top news agency in Spanish and fourth among all agencies in the world. "Throughout its history it has been, and remains, a benchmark for media and a crucial vehicle for the expansion of the Spanish language and culture of our country as well as that of the countries of Ibero-America," said the jury. Efe is present in 180 cities in 120 countries, performing services in four languages.