On Tuesday, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain presented three journalism awards.
The ceremony, which took place at the new ABC headquarters in Madrid, was held to award three journalism prizes: the “Mariano de Cavia” Prize, which went to Javier Cercas, the “Luca Tena” Prize, which went to José María Carrascal, and the “Mingote” Prize, which went to Ricardo Martínez.
Their Majesties arrived at ABC’s new headquarters in Madrid and were welcomed by the President of Vocento and the Director of the ABC Newspaper. Also present were the President of the Senate, the President of the Madrid Community, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Culture and Sports and the Mayor of Madrid.
The ceremony began with words from the President of Vocento, which is a Spanish group of multimedia communications. He then handed the microphone to King Felipe for His Majesty to give his remarks.
In his speech, the King highlighted the importance of the role of journalists in the maintenance of democracy and in the fight against the spread of false or misleading information. He also underlined how crucial journalism is to the construction of the critical spirit of a society.
Their Majesties then proceeded to hand the prizes, which consist of a bronze statue by sculptor Onieva, and exchanged a few words with the winners. The event was concluded by a gala dinner to honour the prize winners.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia are regular attendees of this ceremony with both being very close to the cause of journalism. Queen Letizia, in particular, was a television journalist before becoming a member of the Spanish Royal Family, and her name was best known for her live reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, and for being the presenter of the evening news on RTVE, the Spanish National Television.
