The Diplomat
King Felipe VI will preside this Monday at Casa de América over the forty-third King of Spain International Journalism Awards ceremony, organized by the EFE News Agency and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
Established in 1983, these awards recognize the best journalism in Spanish and Portuguese in the Ibero-American region and acknowledge work that strengthens mutual understanding between countries, promotes the defense of human rights, sustainability, and culture, and fosters citizen participation and democratic values.
Previous recipients include the Peruvian-Spanish Nobel Laureate in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa; and the international photographer Sebastião Salgado, winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (1998). Spanish writers Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Juan José Millás, Uruguayan writer Carmen Posadas, and Colombian writer Daniel Samper were among the recipients.
“In its 2026 edition, the King of Spain International Journalism Awards have masterfully captured the meaning of death, the forest fires in Portugal, the plight of migrants who drown on their journey to the US, and the devastating storm that ravaged part of the Valencian Community in October 2024,” the organizers noted. The Honduran magazine “Contracultura” and the Brazilian organization Aos Fatos also received the award for defending the truth in times of digital manipulation and for successfully removing misleading posts on TikTok and videos sexualizing teenagers in Meta.
An international jury, chaired by the president of EFE, Miguel Ángel Oliver, and the director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Antón Leis, and composed of leading media professionals and institutions from the United States, Panama, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain, has selected the winners from among 230 entries from nearly twenty countries.
The awards ceremony will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the Casa de América in Madrid and will bring together authorities, representatives from high-level state institutions, the business, social, and cultural sectors, as well as internationally renowned journalists and authors from the winning media outlets. The event can also be followed live via streaming on the YouTube channel.
The prize consists of a cash award of 10,000 euros per category and a bronze sculpture by the artist Joaquín Vaquero Turcios, presented by the King of Spain, which represents the flag of the Ibero-American Community of Nations. The artist, who passed away in 2010, was inspired by the wind as an ally, sails as instruments, and the flag as a symbol for reaching the Americas.
The award consists of a cash prize of 10,000 euros per category and a bronze sculpture by the artist Joaquín Vaquero Turcios, presented by the King of Spain, depicting the flag of the Ibero-American Community of Nations.
The award winners:
NARRATIVE PRIZE
“Asystole: Death from Within”
A podcast from Cadena SER (Spain), by Aimar Bretos and Víctor Olazábal, which addresses death without euphemisms or euphemisms, with narration and sound design that successfully convey the emotion of something so human and delicate.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND HUMANITARIAN ACTION PRIZE
“Rio Bravo, the River of a Thousand Dead Migrants”
A transnational investigation by El Universal (Mexico), along with Lighthouse Reports and the Washington Post, which documents the alarming increase in drowning deaths of migrants attempting to cross the Rio Bravo.
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
“Land of Arsonists”
This podcast from the digital magazine Divergente (Portugal) travels the country from north to south to explore the causes of arson in the context of rural exodus, abandoned fields, and climate change, taking a unique approach by interviewing the arsonists themselves.
CULTURAL AWARD
“Counterculture”
The cultural project from the digital media outlet Contracorriente (Honduras) uses artistic expressions by authors from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to tell the story of resistance in Central America, publishing it in a print magazine.
PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
“L’ Horta Sud”
A photograph by Óscar Corral, published in El País (Spain), highlights the work of public services, represented by a group of firefighters, after the devastating storm that struck Valencia in October 2024, causing 230 deaths.
AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MEDIA OUTLET IN IBERO-AMERICA
Aos Fatos
A Brazilian journalistic organization with a pioneering track record in Latin America for investigating, confronting, and documenting how digital platforms shape communication and operate as vectors of disinformation. With ten years of history, its model integrates journalism, data, AI, and civic technology.
EFE AWARD
EFE News Agency Delegation in Jerusalem (Israel)
This award recognizes the “exemplary” work of the Agency’s delegation in Jerusalem during the war in the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7, 2023, following a massive Hamas attack against Israel, for practicing journalism “under extremely difficult conditions” and for “holding the line for many months.”