Catalina Guerrero, Julián Cabrera and Marta Carazo receive the Salvador de Madariaga European Journalism Award
The Salvador de Madariaga European Journalism Awards ceremony was held at the Alicante Music Auditorium of the Alicante Provincial Council. The winners of the 28th edition were Catalina Guerrero, delegate of the EFE Agency in Brussels, Julián Cabrera, news director of Onda Cero and Marta Carazo, TVE correspondent in Brussels, in the categories of written press, radio and television, respectively.
Miguel Ángel Aguilar, Secretary General of the Association of European Journalists (APE) opened the ceremony. His speech was followed by a short piano concert by Gonzalo Barceló Antón. Afterwards, Eduardo Dolón, Deputy for the Presidency, Economy and Internal Affairs of the Alicante Provincial Council, Mar Iglesias García, President of the Valencian Media Corporation and José Manuel García Margallo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Jury of the 28th edition of the award, spoke.
María Ángeles Benítez Salas, Director of the European Commission Representation in Spain, and María Andrés, Director of the European Parliament Office in Spain, read out the jury's minutes. They praised Catalina Guerrero for "her long career of tirelessly reporting on European current affairs from all angles, always with rigour and impartiality". Of Julián Cabrera, they recalled the lines that have inspired his long career, "his journalistic qualities, inspired by the founding values of the EU, as well as the impartiality and pluralism that are projected today throughout the channel's programming". On Marta Carazo's work, they stressed that "she has been able to adapt the information on the European Union to television like few other journalists and has done so not only by reporting on decisions, but also by trying to give a voice to those who are most directly affected by those decisions".
After the award ceremony and the speeches by the winners, Josefina Bueno, Councillor for Innovation, Universities and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana, and Jaume Duch, Spokesperson and Director General for Communication of the European Parliament, took the floor. Pascual Ignacio Navarro Ríos, Secretary of State for the European Union, closed the ceremony.
On receiving the award, Catalina Guerrero, paid tribute to the professionals who work in news agencies: "I would like to thank the jury of this 28th edition for having chosen a representative of 'the pawns of information' to recognise this anonymous, essential, rigorous and impartial work that we agency journalists do every day, reporting on the European project, now mature, but always alive, always evolving, especially from Brussels, but also from any city in Spain, Europe and the world".
Julián Cabrera, for his part, reflected on the context in which the European project is evolving: "I believe that the European Union finds itself, after the trauma of Brexit, facing two major challenges that will undoubtedly mark its future and perhaps its survival. One is the war in Ukraine or, in other words, the invasion of a sovereign European territory, even if it does not belong to the Union, with the ensuing humanitarian, military and, above all, energy consequences. The other is the gradual rise of populism in the form of extreme ideological and, above all, anti-European groups, which practically no country in the Union is immune to and which, in a very specific way, we can see in the case of Spain. Now more than ever, the maxim 'more Europe' is more valuable than ever, but also the need for real alternatives to citizens' problems is more important than ever to prevent them from falling into the hands of 'pied pipers'".
Finally, Marta Carazo expressed the importance of the prize for her work: "The European Union is a universe of information that is constantly growing. Covering it, understanding it and explaining it is the biggest challenge I have faced in my professional career. But it is also the most enriching experience. That is why the Salvador de Madariaga prize moves me enormously. It is a recognition and a responsibility that stimulates me and helps me to continue my efforts to help viewers understand Europe".
