<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Felipe VI and Queen Letizia presented the 2025 King of Spain International Journalism Awards this Wednesday at the Casa América headquarters in Madrid. These awards are organized by the EFE Agency and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID). This year, the awards recognize, among other values, the fight for press freedom in Nicaragua (La Prensa) and Venezuela (the CONNECTAS news platform).</strong></h4> A jury headed by the president of EFE, Miguel Ángel Oliver, and the director of AECID, Antón Leis, and composed of six other journalists from media outlets and institutions in Portugal, Panama, Argentina, Mexico, and Spain, selected the winners last March from among 256 submissions from nearly twenty countries. The King of Spain Awards, a benchmark in Latin America, include a prize of 10,000 euros and a sculpture by the artist Joaquín Vaquero Turcios. The King and Queen were accompanied at the ceremony by the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol; the Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the Minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños; the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, Elma Sáiz; the Ibero-American Secretary General, Andrés Allamand; the President of the Madrid Assembly, Enrique Ossorio; the President of the EFE Agency, Miguel Ángel Oliver; and the Director General of Casa de América, León de la Torre, among other dignitaries. After the awards ceremony, the King gave a speech in which he emphasized that, “From Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, and Spain, the 2025 laureates have demonstrated excellence in their profession and their honesty in defending freedom of the press and expression, human rights—especially those of the most vulnerable—and the environment. They have told us their stories perfectly (…) which show the obstacles they have faced, but also their firm will to overcome them.” The winners in the various categories are: Ibero-American News Media for La Prensa (Nicaragua), represented by Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, who was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship by the Daniel Ortega government. At 99 years old, it is the oldest media outlet in Nicaragua. It has survived three dictatorships, censorship, closures, bombings, and the assassination of director Pedro Joaquín Chamorro (1978). It is currently facing the toughest period in its history, informing the Nicaraguan population through its digital platform and from exile. The jury recognized the newspaper as "highly prestigious" and "an example of resistance and resilience" that has "been struggling for years" and whose professionals "refuse to give up." Narrative Journalism for "Golden Opacity: The Dark Mechanisms of Massive Gold Trafficking in South America," written by a team coordinated by Peruvian journalist Milagros Salazar. This cross-border investigation, based on massive data analysis in five countries, exposes the practices of illegal gold triangulation between producing countries in Latin America and buyers in Europe and the Middle East. "A work of extraordinary excellence," according to the jury, who praised it as an "overwhelming investigation" and a "piece that breaks journalistic molds." International Cooperation and Humanitarian Action for "Operation Retuit" (Venezuela), a collaborative effort of 14 media outlets and dozens of professionals in the Venezuela Vota and LaHoradeVenezuela alliance, organized under the CONNECTAS journalistic platform, led by Colombian Carlos Eduardo Huertas. The investigation addresses the delicate situation of Venezuelan journalism following the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, and is conducted using an Artificial Intelligence-based tool that, as an added value, offers an unprecedented collaborative alliance in the country. “Operation Retweet” is “an excellent work” of “pure journalism” that constitutes “a great effort to expose” and presents an “original” and “innovative” component by using AI to “avoid repression” of journalists, according to the jury. It is “a cry for freedom in Venezuela” that confirms that “journalism will not die.” Environmental for “Poison in the Tap: A Route Through Spain Without the Right to Drinking Water,” by Spaniards Antonio Delgado and Ana Tudela of DATADISTA, published by elDiario.es (Spain). This interactive documentary reveals that more than one million people in Spain live in critical areas of nitrate contamination in tap water at levels that pose a health risk, a figure far higher than previously reported. This investigation is part of the “Under the Surface” project, in which 14 journalists from seven European media outlets worked together to investigate the situation of aquifers in the country as a whole and in each of their countries in Europe. According to the jury, it is a "magnificent" and "rigorous" work that is a "slap in the face to the developed world." Cultural to "Mama Antula, the story of the Argentine miracle. Step by step, how was the life of the Argentine saint who surprised the West," published by La Nación (Argentina). It is the work of a team, led by Cecilia Miljiker, on the modern woman represented by the figure of the first Argentine saint, canonized on February 11, 2024, after a process that lasted more than a century. The jury praised "good research, well filmed and well-crafted," in addition to having a "spectacular soundtrack," which represents a "modern, persevering woman, to whom the people rewarded with sainthood." Photograph for “Os Desabrigados da Humanidade” (“The Homeless of Humanity”), by Fabio Alarico Teixeira (Brazil), published by Plataforma 9, a public initiative that uses narrative to provoke constructive change in society. It is a portrait of people who survive by scavenging industrial waste, contract infectious diseases, and often die on the streets, without state aid, and amidst racial and social prejudice. The winning photograph, of a sick and injured young man, combines, according to the jury, a meticulous aesthetic with the drama of a shocking reality.
