The Ortega y Gasset Awards for Journalism Gala Ceremony 2009

The recovery of historic memory, buried in mass graves -and kept there during the transition to democracy- was ever present at this year's Ortega y Gasset Awards for Journalism Gala. The evening was a plea against forgetting, according to the author Almudena Grandes as the prizes were handed out to Adolfo Suárez Illana, Jorge Martínez Reverte, Amaya García Ortiz de Jocano and Tomás Eloy Martínez.

The event, celebrated at Madrid's Círculo de Bellas Artes, brought together leading figures from the worlds of culture, politics and business, including four government ministers: José Blanco (Development), Ángeles González Sinde (Culture), Cristina Garmendia (Science and Innovation) and Bibiana Aído (Equality).

The gala ceremony, which honors excellence in journalism, was presided over by Ignacio Polanco, president of Grupo PRISA, and Manuel Polanco, director general.

"This award is not really for me. And I assure you that I will make sure it gets to the one who really earned it as soon as I get home," said Adolfo Suárez Illana, as he picked up his prize for Best Photograph - portraying his father, ex-Prime minister Adollfo Suarez, strolling with the King Juan Carlos in a pleasant garden with their backs to the camera. In just a brief instant, Adolfo Suárez Illana was able to capture the very essence of Spain's personal, historic and political transformation. "I'm not the real prize-winner", said the photojournalist. "The prizewinners are those in the pictures and what they stand for", he explained, adding that with this award he hoped to "keep alive the spirit of the Transition." He also said he wished to share his prize with the Queen, "the third protagonist and third witness to those momentous historic events and who is always there, discreetly in the background". The winner said he planned to donate the prize money Alzheimer's foundation of which the Queen is patron.

History and memory, both on a broad scale and at a very personal level, were invoked in equal measure throughout the evening. Closing the event, the author Almudena Grandes stressed the importance of our memory of "historic freedoms", ones which have seen Spanish society overtake "the political class and the institutions". "Remembering freedom is freedom itself," she said, "because freedom is consolidated in the present and passed on to the future". The winning photo, she said, was more valuable for what we don't see, such as the anonymous but worthy actors in history, who were also present in the work of Amaya García, winner of the prize in the  Digital Press category. These anonymous Spaniards lie in their thousands in mass graves - 4,300 of whom were shot in the cemetery of San Andrés in Malaga. Yet their identity is now being restored to them thanks to reports such  as "Clase de historia a pie de fosa", (History Class from the Mass Graves) published by Elmundo.es. The winning journalist from Madrid dedicated her award to all of the victims and their families and all those who still mourn loved ones buried in ditches and mass graves.

Another exercise in memory was the report by Jorge Martínez Reverte, who recalled the death of his mother in his award-winning piece Una muerte digna (A Death with Dignity), published in El País. Angered by the constant harassment by Madrid's regional government of Dr Montes and his team of anesthetists at the Hospital Severo Ochoa in Leganés, he decided to write an account of his mother's death. Terminally ill with cancer, her six children helped her die with dignity. The resulting report made five columns on the front page and was an attempt to write from the soul, "my own soul," said Reverte. "It's something I'm not used to doing because journalists are supposed to write about everyone else - not themselves."

The only absent prize winner was Argentinian writer and journalist Tomás Eloy Martínez, honored for his long and varied career. Picking up the prize on his behalf was Rosa Conde, director of the Fundación Carolina. In a message  from Argentina, nevertheless, Tomás Eloy Martínez spoke of his gratitude and of the core values of journalism. "We may be separated by thousands of kilometers but we are united by a profession that has been defined as the best profession in the world".

Further information:

Almudena Grandes' speech at the Ortega y Gasset Awards for Journalism Gala 2009