The Union of Valencian Journalists presented this morning in a press conference the 2024 Freedom of Expression Awards that will be presented this afternoon at 7:30 p.m. in the Sala Matilde Salvador of the La Nau Cultural Center of the University of Valencia.
This year the assembly of the Union of Journalists decided to award two Llibertat d’Expressió awards. At the international level, the assembly awarded Palestinian journalists represented by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. To collect the award, Wael Al-Dahdouh, chief Palestinian journalist of Al Jazeeera in the Gaza Strip, traveled to Valencia on April 10. Al-Dahdouh received the award and offered a heartfelt conference that filled the Charity in an event that exceeded all expectations and which is currently the most viewed video on our YouTube Channel with almost 170,000 views.
At the national level, the assembly recognized the Canarian journalist, Carlos Sosa, director of the digital ‘Canarias Ahora’ who has had an oral trial for the complaint presented by Judge Alba (firmly convicted of prevarication, embezzlement and falsification of documents, to six and a half years in prison and 18 years of disqualification for his conspiracy against magistrate Victoria Rosell) where he is accused of hate crimes, harassment and revelation of secrets and a bail of 422,500 euros is imposed. In addition, Judge Alba asks for 23 years in prison for the journalist considering that his information about the case on the digital websites ‘Canarias Ahora’ and ‘eldiario.es’ invaded his private sphere and promoted hatred against him. The Prosecutor’s Office, on the other hand, requests that the case be dismissed, since it does not see anything reprehensible in the journalist’s information.
Vicent Marco, president of the Unió de Periodistes, began the press conference by thanking the winner for his presence and explained the reasons that led the assembly of members of the Unió to choose this candidacy: “with this award we want to show our absolute rejection of the decision of this Court of Instruction and warn of the risk that this judicial resolution poses for freedom of information, which demonstrates a lack of balance between the right to inform freely and the protection of the accusation for crimes of revelation of secrets , hatred and harassment, imposing such a high bail, against the criteria of the Prosecutor’s Office.”
Marco has highlighted the unusual nature of this case: “how can the desire of a convicted person who does not want his crimes to be counted be on the same level as the right to count those crimes. It is unprecedented that the same bail is requested from Carlos Sosa for supposedly “hating and persecuting” or, what is the same, for doing his job and publishing truthful and appropriate information, as for a criminal convicted of judicial prevarication, bribery and falsification of documents. official. But this is happening, and this surreal process in a rule of law is what Carlos Sosa has to suffer today,” added the president of the Union of Journalists.
“Coercion, using the system to kill the messenger, trying to limit journalistic work and persecute those who dare to tell truths, no matter how uncomfortable, is too easy. It is easy to focus on the journalist. It is an anomaly of the system, a direct attack against journalists who are here to ensure that institutions are an instrument to serve and not to serve themselves. “Good journalism continues to be persecuted and democracy is put at risk,” with these words, Vicent Marco concluded his speech, giving the speaking turn to Carlos Sosa, whom he thanked for his commitment to the truth, for not giving up and maintain integrity and to fight and dignify the journalistic profession.
Carlos Sosa has been suffering an ordeal for ten years, ever since he began investigating Judge Salvador Alba in his conspiracy to eliminate Judge Victoria Rosell. He tells it in the first person during this press conference. The Canarian journalist began the speech by thanking him for the award, for what it has meant to him, and by stating categorically that lawfare does exist in Spain and that his is a clear case of the instrumentalization of justice against him and his partner, the Judge Victoria Rosell.
Sosa has made a summary of this judicial persecution that began in the Las Palmas Prosecutor’s Office with a hunt that went through different administrations of justice until reaching the Supreme Court. In this ordeal inflicted on Sosa and Victoria Rosell, the participation of certain journalists and media outlets was essential: “without complicit media outlets there would be no lawfare. We have been afraid and we have experienced first-hand situations that we would never have imagined,” stated the winner.
“We have never revealed in our newspaper either the illnesses that Judge Alba alleged to try to free himself from prison, or the name of his daughter’s school, as they falsely wrote in the complaint and as the judge has incredibly assumed to be true. We take great care to comply with our obligation to publish truthful news of public interest that does not violate the rights of anyone, not even those of the criminal, as the Prosecutor’s Office has repeatedly said, which requests the dismissal of the case. But we have had a judge who has preferred to believe the convicted man, who asks for 23 years in prison and 422,500 euros in compensation for me,” Sosa continued explaining.
“This whole thing is about instilling fear, about putting limits on journalists, so that we know that there are certain matters in which it is better not to get involved because you can end up on the bench or, in the worst case, in prison and ruined. This is about the same thing that has been debated this last week in Spain, it is about a judiciary with serious incrustations of corruption that, in my opinion, in some cases acts like a true mafia at the service of powers that are not those that emanate democratically. of the polls”, with these words Carlos Sosa ended his intervention.
Vicent Marco ended the press conference by reminding us that the handover ceremony will take place this afternoon at 7:30 p.m. in the Matilde Salvador de la Nau Room, which will be presented by journalist Elena Tamarit, a member of the Unió executive.
