Last night the King claimed “courageous journalism, with the capacity to attract, monitor, denounce and describe”, in the presentation of the Mariano de Cavia, Luca de Tena and Mingote awards, granted by the newspaper Abc, which this year have distinguished the works of Manuel Jabois, Pedro García Cuartango and Flavita Banana.
The dinner, which took place at the newspaper’s headquarters in Madrid, was chaired by the Kings and included representatives of politics, journalism and civil society.
In his words, with which the award ceremony was closed, Felipe VI reviewed the challenges facing journalism, “immersed in constant and frantic technological advances” which, as he warned, must not endanger “the basic principles of rigor, truthfulness and public interest”. The King proclaimed that “without independent journalism, there are no free opinions”.
Before closing his words, the King had a memory for the cartoonist Francisco Ibáñez, who died on Saturday, of whom he said that “he has accompanied us throughout our lives with his great characters who will be alive forever among us” .
Manuel Jabois received the Mariano de Cavia award for his article “My life without WhatsApp” published in El País. Born in 1978 in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra), he started in journalism at Diario de Pontevedra, from where he moved to El Mundo and, in 2015, to El País, where he writes columns, chronicles, reports and interviews. The King said that he is “a vital observer capable of attributing to each word an essential context”.
Pedro García Cuartango, from Burgos, 68 years old, has earned the Luca de Tena award for his professional career. After working at Cinco Días and El Mundo, since 2017 he has worked as a columnist and columnist at ABC. In his speech, after presenting him with the prize, the King underlined his “unequivocal and consistent criteria, in the face of any adverse wind”.
The Mingote prize, which is alternatively awarded to photographers or illustrators, was awarded this year to the cartoonist Flavia Álvarez-Pedrosa, better known as Flavita Banana, for an illustration published in El País. Born in Oviedo 36 years ago, Flavita Banana collaborates with several publications. When praising her work, the King recalled that, in her cartoons, Flavita “appeals to the absurd as a way to introduce a smile, a reflection or a simple wink at the life”.
The jury for this edition was made up of the director of the Royal Spanish Academy, Santiago Muñoz Machado, who acted as president; Jordi Juan, director of La Vanguardia; Pepa Bueno, director of El País; Joaquín Manso, director of El Mundo; Eduardo Peralta, director of Ideal Quirós, director of Abc, and José Miguel Santamaría, director of El Correo.
