The Ecuadorian media 'GK', the photographer Brais Lorenzo, Carlos F. Chamorro and a multimedia report from EL PAÍS, winners of the Ortega y Gasset 2021 awards

The Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards, the most prestigious in journalism in Spanish, already have winners for their 38th edition.

The jury, which met this morning at the headquarters of EL PAÍS, has awarded the public service character of journalism during the year of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, without forgetting another great crisis: the environmental one.

The award-winning journalists were the Ecuadorian Isabela Ponce, the Spanish Mariano Zafra, Javier Salas and the photographer Brais Lorenzo and the Nicaraguan Carlos Fernando Chamorro.

The award for Best story or journalistic investigation has gone to the report

The women who won the desert

, written by Isabela Ponce.

The work describes the struggle of four women in a semi-desert area of ​​Ecuador to bring water to their crops.

It was published in the Ecuadorian media

GK

, specialized in environment, transparency and gender.

The jury has highlighted “the detailed and precise description of the environment in which a story of women's leadership takes place in a hostile environment.

It brings an original approach, which highlights the preponderant role of women and the importance of community vision and generosity: the four protagonists, without knowing each other and without scientific training, work with the water of others in mind ”.

In this category, the jury has agreed to make a special mention to the report

Three Cuban Girls

, published by Carlos Manuel Álvarez in the Cuban magazine

El Estornudo

.

In the category of Best multimedia coverage, the winners are Javier Salas and Mariano Zafra, from EL PAÍS, for the special

A lounge, a bar and a class: this is how the coronavirus spreads in the air

.

Journalists have used the visual narrative to explain in a very simple way how sanitary measures stop the spread of the coronavirus in three different very everyday scenarios. This article received more than 12 million readers in its first days of publication and was praised by numerous international experts. “This multimedia report not only changed lives, it saved them. At a time when how aerosol transmission of the coronavirus worked was not effectively counted, it was of great help to millions of readers. It is also the perfect expression of the public service of journalism, which helps to make decisions ”. The jury also highlighted the fact that EL PAÍS made the report available to the world's media and translated it into several languages ​​— English, Portuguese, French or Chinese.

In this category, the jury has agreed to make a special mention to

Los confinados

, a special published in the Venezuelan media

La Vida de Nos

and coordinated by Albor Rodríguez and Héctor Torres.

The photographer Brais Lorenzo, from the Efe agency, has won the Best Photography award for an image titled

Birthday.

In it, a nonagenarian woman, Elena Pérez, is seen celebrating her 98 years in a nursing home in Ourense, Galicia.

The center had been the first focus of coronavirus in the autonomous community, but it was already free of patients at that time.

The jury has described the image as “a composition that brings everything together, both from a formal point of view and from a content point of view.

It is a photo that conveys what happened in the pandemic, but that also throws up an idea of ​​hope and that all lives matter ”.

In this category, the jury has agreed to make a special mention to Samuel Sánchez, EL PAÍS photographer, for the series

La Paz: a hospital in struggle

, published in

El País Semanal.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes the professional career of a journalist, goes unanimously to Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Nicaraguan investigative journalist, from his youth he openly supported the struggle to overthrow the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in his country, the same one that murdered his father when he was director of

La Prensa

. He has worked as a reporter, directed documentaries and has served as the Government's Deputy Minister of Culture. Currently, he directs the

Confidencial

medium

, presents the television program

Esta Semana

and is a member of the Governing Council of the Gabo Foundation for Ibero-American journalism.

In January 2019, a victim of threats by the Daniel Ortega regime, he went into exile in Costa Rica seeking political asylum. He stayed there for 10 months and returned to Nicaragua in November 2019. Last week, the two media outlets run by the journalist were assaulted for the second time by the police, who requisitioned all their work materials. The jury has described Chamorro as an “emblem of the defense of freedom of expression” and has highlighted his “ability to overcome and confront the repressive regime that governs the Central American country. His is an exercise in journalism with capital letters, exercised in the face of adversity and violence ”.

The jury for this edition has been composed of Jordi Amat, writer; Beatriz Corredor, president of the Red Eléctrica Group; Isabel Peña, screenwriter; Borja Sémper, director of International Relations of EY and exporter of the PP in the Basque Parliament; Raquel Yotti, director of the Carlos III Health Institute; Javier Moreno, director of EL PAÍS; Carlos Yárnoz, defender of the reader of EL PAÍS, and Ana Pantaleoni, editor-in-chief of EL PAÍS in Catalonia and member of the Editorial Committee. Pedro Zuazua, Communications Director of Prisa Noticias, has served as secretary of the jury, without the right to vote.

The Ortega y Gasset Awards, created in 1984 by EL PAÍS and named after the Spanish thinker and journalist, seek to highlight the defense of freedom, independence and rigor as essential virtues of journalism and give recognition to those works that have stood out For its quality.

Each of the awards is endowed with 15,000 euros and with a work by the artist Eduardo Chillida from San Sebastian.

Written or graphic works published in Spanish in media around the world are eligible for these awards.

Jury of the 38 Ortega y Gasset Awards. From left to right: Pedro Zuazua, Communications Director of Prisa Noticias; Carlos Yárnoz, Ombudsman for EL PAÍS; Isabel Peña, screenwriter; Borja Sémper, director of international relations at EY; Beatriz Corredor, president of Red Eléctrica de España; Jordi Amat, writer; Javier Moreno, director of EL PAÍS; Raquel Yotti, director of the Carlos III Health Institute, and Ana Pantaleoni, journalist and member of the Editorial Committee of EL PAÍS Carlos Rosillo