Soledad Gallego-Díaz says mistrust in journalism is also mistrust in democracy

Soledad Gallego-Díaz, who was once the EL PAÍS London correspondent, and who has now served as the newspaper’s editor-in-chief for for one hundred days paraphrased Charles Dickens to sum up the current state of journalism: these are the best of times – and the worst of times. What happens now depends in large part “on our talking to each other about what happens to us”. The “formidable” challenges facing the trade of journalism require a professional debate. “Let's have one.”

She was speaking at the New Economy Forum on Monday morning, at Madrid’s Hotel Palace. The event was attended by journalists, politicians from across the spectrum, members of the business community, representatives of the newspaper’s parent group Prisa and professionals from a wide range of sectors. Gallego-Díaz was introduced by Joaquín Estefanía, her colleague from Cuadernos para el Diálogo and EL PAÍS, where he is now deputy editor. Estefanía reminded the audience of the tribute paid to  Gallego-Díaz by the newspaper's first editor, Juan Luis Cebrián, when she picked up the Ortega y Gasset award: “She is, and always has been, the best of all of us.”

The worst of times can also be the very best. New technologies pose a challenge. The dialectic between print and digital journalism is a false dichotomy, because “what defines the media is not the degree of technology, but the professional culture”. And the victor in the battlefield in the ongoing transformation must be content, and our newsrooms have to be trained to win. This battlefield is strictly journalistic – it has nothing to do with communication, said Gallego-Díaz. “Though it may seem otherwise, the great newsrooms are not Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.” The enormous expansion of social networks, of undeniable influence, “suffocates journalism, which must stand up for its rules.”

Without rules, or with the rules dictated by social networks, “there would be a catastrophe for journalism and also for democracy.” Newspapers must set public agendas based on the truth, which does actually exist: “There are facts”. “Readers seek news in newspapers,” in any format, and the reliability of the journalism that provides the information which shapes public depends on “verification procedures.” Those controls must be public. And these are not merely standards for either print or digital: they are standards for all journalism.

EL PAÍS reaches a hundred million readers around the world through the Internet, said Gallego-Díaz with evident pride. Its influence in Latin America depends on the information it provides, provided in large part by the wide network of correspondents working across the region. “Whenever anything happens anywhere in Latin America, its inhabitants will read what we have to tell them about themselves. That makes me proud”.

The truth exists. “There has always been fake news.” Now post-truth “is organized across the social networks, where there’s this idea that the truth of facts does not exist. And if the truth of facts does not exist, then neither does journalism. Without journalism, democracy would lose its very essence. And the mistrust that some are trying to build up around journalism seeks to create a mistrust in democracy itself”.

DILIGENCE, RULES AND WORK

Public debate “must be about certain facts. The basis for debate cannot be different truths. The public is overwhelmed by a flow of news that does not respond to the reality of the facts. “In a building with 25 floors there may be up to 25 “deceptive truths”.

Combatting the situation demands “diligence, rules and work, and that can’t be achieved in two minutes”. EL PAÍS has nurtured, since its foundation in 1976, “a professional project; it was set up to exercise quality journalism, and we continue to nurture that culture at EL PAÍS, where journalism is exercised in accordance with rules that are se out in our Style Book”.

EL PAÍS is an ally of technology. “It helps us to provide news about life, about the rights of citizens, so they can make free decisions.” Technology helps us keep track of society, a place where nothing is certain, said Gallego-Síaz, before adding a note of optimism: "It's a great time for us to do our job".

Speaking of the post she took on three months ago, Gallego-Díaz explained that her project is "continuist", because EL PAÍS has always championed democratic institutions, “among which the newspaper was born”. In addition, the newspaper maintains “its progressive point of view”, and "we accompany society: we don’t want to see a static society”. What’s more, the newspaper always has been, and naturally still is, a place for debate, not confrontation, a place that “understands the existence of adversaries” but not enemies, “and does not engage in hostility. The Style Book governs and safeguards those foundational principles, she said, and guides the paper’s current trajectory.

Journalists asked the new editor about the shift towards a “new model" following the tenure of Antonio Caño, her predecessor, and the so-called "purge" in the newsroom, which some likened to the recent changes at state broadcaster RTVE. Newspapers adapt to the changes in society, said Gallego-Díaz. “There has been no break, merely adaptation."

She couldn’t speak for RTVE, she said, but what she has done is steer the newspaper toward different issues, new ones that constantly arise; hence, for example, she explained, the relaunch of the Society section, which had been discontinued. "And we have put it in the hands of a great team of journalists.” She also highlighted the effort being made in coverage of the economy." On the departure of the previous Opinion editor, José Ignacio Torreblanca, now a collaborator with El Mundo, Gallego-Díaz explained that she had asked him to continue as a collaborator with EL PAÍS, but he opted to leave. When asked him if the newspaper had changed its position with respect to the Catalan independence movement, she explained that while the newspaper encourages debate on the different positions, she believes that "there is no reason for independence, and EL PAÍS is not a supporter". On prisoner release, she said that this was a matter for the judiciary and that the newspaper had always backed the judiciary.

On possible editorial interference by shareholders, such as Telefónica or Santander, the editor replied: “The company that publishes EL PAÍS is party to our project. The Style Book is our guide. I’d like to thank our shareholders, and also the Amber Capital”, for “the respect they show for our professional work”. Gallego-Díaz responded with a clear  "yes" when asked if there was still "a glass ceiling" for women in the media. There is, and especially so in the Opinion section. But EL PAÍS, she said, is on track to dealing with this.

Summing up the event, José Romero on behalf of the sponsor Vodafone, returned to Dickens's lines about the best and worst of times. Like Estefanía, he said that London was where Gallego-Díaz had started out on her career in journalism and that it had shaped her as a journalist. Gallego-Díaz was also a correspondent in Paris, Brussels and Buenos Aires and was deputy editor under Juan Luis Cebrián and with Joaquín Estefanía.