• XXI INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARDS Speech by Joaquín Manso: "In this context, journalism is the voice that challenges official narratives and exposes the authentic truth"

Two sentences from the speeches of the Turkish writer and opinion journalist Ece Temelkuran and the Salvadoran journalist Carlos Dada explain why these two information professionals have received the XXI International Journalism Awards of EL MUNDO, endowed with 20,000 euros and a sculpture by the artist Martín Chirino and which have been presented at the Prado Museum in an event led by the poet and journalist of EL MUNDO, Antonio Lucas.

"It is up to journalism to position itself in the face of power, to always question the use of the powerful for using their ability to affect the lives of others," said the director of the newspaper El Faro, awarded the award for Best Journalistic Work 2023. Due to "threats and harassment" from the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, Carlos Dada has had to move the headquarters of his newspaper, the first digital media outlet in Latin America, to Costa Rica, which has just celebrated its 25th anniversary.

XXI International Journalism Awards

Ece Temelkuran's speech: "We cannot fight our fears, but we can make friends with them"

  • Written by: ECE TEMELKURAN*

Ece Temelkuran's speech: "We cannot fight our fears, but we can make friends with them"

Carlos Dada's speech: "Journalism has to position itself in the face of power. Always"

  • Written by: CARLOS DADA*

Carlos Dada's speech: "Journalism has to position itself in the face of power. Always"

"Our task as journalists and writers is not only to understand and convey the truth, but to find ways to heal the anger that is often caused by deep media," said Temelkuran, one of the most influential columnists for the opposition to Tayyip Erdogan's government, who received the 2023 Press Freedom Award. and that, like Dada, she lives in exile. However, as he pointed out in his speech after receiving the award from Queen Letizia, "home is not where you remember people, but where they remember you, and today, THE WORLD, by recognizing my work, gives me a point of support in time and space, and this already makes Spain a bit of home. a place where I'm remembered."

Both laureates expressed their gratitude to Her Majesty and defended the need to be "courageous" and to "act in spite of fear".

Precisely, the members of the jury had praised in their ruling that both journalists "represent the fundamental values of the profession: courage and rigor". Thus, both Dada and Temelkuran did not want to miss the opportunity to show off these virtues with speeches that showed the need to "make friends with fear in order to continue our journey" and the obligation to "remember and repeat that democracy is not the government of the majority, but a system of checks and balances, of limits to power, which guarantee rights for all citizens, including, and above all, minorities."

Joaquín Manso, director of EL MUNDO, during his speech at the XXI International Journalism Awards.ALBERTO DI LOLLI

These words were shared by the director of EL MUNDO, Joaquín Manso, who together with the Queen presented both awards. Manso addressed the attendees in the Cloister of the Prado Museum, full of authorities and institutional representatives, to recall that last week marked the 200th anniversary of the hanging of General Riego. "No one seems to have noticed it and there is no commemoration underway, but remembering Riego and his courage in the defense of constitutional freedoms is always a way of fighting, as he himself said, against the arbitrariness of power."

In this sense, and very much in line with the speeches given by both winners, the director of EL MUNDO insisted that "trust in democratic society and its institutions is strengthened when the truth prevails and degraded when lies prevail".

For this reason, the EL MUNDO International Journalism Awards, Manso continued, "represent our recognition of audacity and the assumption of risk as intrinsic values of the best journalism, which is journalism that creates moral awareness because it takes a position based on ethical commitment in the face of the arbitrariness of power and in favor of citizens and victims of injustice."

Afterwards, the director of the newspaper and the Queen presented the award for the Best Journalistic Work to Carlos Dada because "El Faro is a light among the shadows of our sister peoples of Central America".

"Journalism in regions like mine is frustrating because we rarely find among the powerful a real will to positively transform the lives of others," he said during his speech Dada, which began by telling a story, "which is a very Latin American tradition." On board a fragile boat, three Salvadoran migrants and one Cuban are on the verge of sinking. The boatman, a Mexican, tells them that they have to leave someone on land or they will all die. The three Salvadorans look at each other and then look at the Cuban. "You wanted democracy, didn't you?" they say to the Cuban migrant. "Well, let's vote!"

"In a true democracy, the Cuban migrant in the joke," the Salvadoran journalist continued, "would have the right to demand a different option to settle the matter, in which he would have the same rights as the three Salvadorans." However, "lies and torture," referring to what the Bukele government is doing, "are not liberating forces, nor just, nor democratic, even if they are applauded by the majority of the population."

Carlos Dada, during his speech at the XXI International Journalism Awards.ALBERTO DI LOLLI

For this reason, Dada insisted that in El Faro "we do not self-censor nor will we stop publishing the government's agreements with criminal organizations, nor the looting of the State, nor the birth of the dictatorship," because "that is our responsibility and our commitment to this profession."

"That is what journalism demands at this moment: the search for the truth and the rigorous application of the journalistic method, the defense of the plurality of voices and the free and honest exchange of arguments," the Salvadoran journalist concluded.

For her part, Temelkuran, very emotional during her speech, was praised by the director of EL MUNDO for being "the journalist who has best explained the authoritarian drift and the collapse of democracy led by Erdogan in Turkey". Restless and non-conformist, the writer had to leave her country when she was the most widely read columnist and now in exile "dares to question the official truths of the Turkish regime".

"It is ironic that I am being rewarded for my bravery, as I have always been and still am full of fear," she began her speech. "The world has become a place full of frightening facts and as human beings we are too vulnerable to act despite our fears and be brave all the time," he continued. In this sense, "this award does not eliminate my fears, but it gives me the strength to continue my Odyssey," he said.

The Turkish journalist wanted to remind us that "we all need to be recognized as human beings". This, which may sound like a very simple phrase, "is a fact that we must hold on to and defend." Temelkuran could not hold back the tears at the end of his speech as he dedicated the award to his mother, who has travelled from Turkey to accompany her daughter in such an important moment. "I want to say it in my mother tongue: 'Bu senin için anne. Herey için teekkürler" ("This is for you, Mom. Thank you for everything.")

Queen Letizia and Joaquín Manso present the award to Ece Temelkuran.ALBERTO DI LOLLI

Joaquín Manso, director of EL MUNDO; Marco Pompignoli, executive president of Unidad Editorial; Laura Múgica, general director and director of Unidad Editorial were the hosts in charge of receiving Her Majesty and the two awardees with whom they chatted amicably minutes before the event began.

Both laureates praised the virtue of the three murdered journalists of this newspaper - Julio Anguita Parrado, Julio Fuentes and José Luis López de Lacalle - in whose honor these awards are presented. The awards are sponsored by Santander, Telefónica, Taboola and Teads, and with the collaboration of the Museo Nacional del Prado.

About 150 people and authorities gathered in the cloister of the Madrid art gallery, such as the president of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol; the president of the General Council of the Judiciary, Vicente Guilarte; the secretary general of the PP, Elías Bendodo; the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida; and the ambassadors of Japan, Takahiro Nakamae, the United Kingdom, Hugh Elliot, Poland, Anna Sroka and Israel, Rodica Radian-Gordon.

The awards ended with the applause of the attendees both for the speeches of the two winners and for the words of Joaquín Manso, who ended his speech by recalling that "journalism stands as a vital counterweight, as the voice that challenges official narratives and exposes the authentic truth".

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