Discover our speakers from this edition
Soledad Gallego-Díaz
Journalist, ex Director of El Páis
Spanish journalist, she was the first female director of El País, where she has worked for more than four decades. She has been vice president of the Spanish section of Reporters Without Borders and a member of the advisory board of the Fundación del Español Urgente (Fundéu BBVA).
Together with her colleagues, she exclusively published the draft of the 1978 Spanish Constitution that was being written behind closed doors, which later became the book Crónica Secreta de la Constitución (1989). For the newspaper El País, she was also deputy editor, reader’s advocate, and correspondent in various parts of the world such as Brussels, Paris, London, Buenos Aires, and New York. She has published the books: Los siete magníficos (1977), Del consenso al desencanto (1981) and La Unión Europea (1997).
She has received several awards such as the Salvador de Madariaga Award, the Margarita Rivière Award for journalistic rigor, and the Ortega y Gasset Award for her professional career.
Martín Caparrós
Fundación Gabo
Argentine journalist, writer and historian. He has been a teacher at the Gabo Foundation since 2001 and a member of its board of trustees since 2013. Born in Buenos Aires, he studied history at the University of Paris, where he went into exile in 1976. He began his career as a journalist in the newspaper Noticias in 1974, since then he has worked in print, radio, and television, excelling in the writing of chronicles.
He has translated Voltaire, Shakespeare and Quevedo, and has published more than thirty books translated into more than thirty languages. Highlights include La noche anterior (1990), La Historia (1999), A quien corresponda (2008), Los Living (2011), Comí (2013), El Hambre (2014), Echeverría (2016) and Ñamerica (2021).
He has been awarded the Herralde Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rey de España Award, the Miguel Delibes National Journalism Prize, the María Moors Cabot Prize, and the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Prize for his professional career, among other.
María Teresa Ronderos
Director, Centro Iberoaméricano de Investigación Periodística
Colombian investigative journalist. Director of the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística and member of the governing council of the Gabo foundation. She was director of the Independent Journalism Program of the Open Society Foundations. She has been founder and director of VerdadAbierta.com, a portal specialized in the Colombian armed conflict.
Author of books such as Guerras Recicladas (Random House, 2014),an investigation on the paramilitary phenomenon in Colombia, Retratos del Poder (2002) and 5 en Humor (2007). Also noteworthy are journalistic guides and analyses such as Entre el silencio y el coraje: dos décadas de libertad de prensa en Colombia (2012).
She has been awarded the Simón Bolívar Journalist of the Year Award twice, the Maria Moors Cabot Award, the Rey de España Award, the Lorenzo Natali Award of the European Union for Human Rights coverage and has been a finalist for the IPYS-Tilac Award for the best Latin American investigations on three occasions.
Ignacio Escolar
Director and founder, elDiario.es
Journalist, director and founder of elDiario.es. He was the first director of the newspaper el Público. He began working as a journalist in 1995, collaborating with newspapers such as Cinco Días and El Mundo and magazines such as Muy Interesante, Rolling Stone, GEO and Quo. He has also collaborated with La Sexta and The Washington Post.
He was appointed coordinator of the Informativos Telecinco website, was assistant director of La Voz de Almería, Cadena SER Almería and Localia Almería. He is also a former blogger and was part of the indie rock band Meteosat.
Virginia Pérez Alonso
Director, Diario Público
Spanish journalist. Director of the newspaper Público since 2019. President of the Platform in Defense of Freedom of Information (PDLI) between 2014 and 2023, she was part of the founding team of the newspaper 20 Minutos, of which she was deputy director. After 15 years of work, she joined El Mundo as deputy director. In 2016 she became the first Spanish-speaking woman member of the Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI), later serving as vice president.
Her projects for the digital transformation of newsrooms earned her awards such as iRedes. She was a jury member for the Miguel Delibes National Journalism Award and the Gabo Awards in the Innovation category. As president of the PDLI, she received the Freedom of Expression Award.
Luz Mely Reyes
Cofounder and Executive Director, Efecto Cocuyo
Venezuelan journalist and writer. Co-founder and general director of Efecto Cocuyo, an integral platform for independent journalism in Venezuela, from where she leads the Venezuela Migrante initiative.
Her first day as a reporter coincided with the first coup attempt against Hugo Chávez in 1992. Since then she has worked for more than 25 years for the main print media in Venezuela and today she collaborates with media such as The Washington Post in Spain. Her investigations include corruption in the kidnapping of the FARC “chancellor” Rodrigo Granda in 2005.
She is an ICFJ Knight Fellow 2024. In 2018 she won the Gabo Award for her coverage of the Venezuelan exodus, the same year Time magazine named her one of the “Guardians of Truth” in its Person of the Year edition and she won the CPJ Freedom of Expression Award. She has also been recognized with the Franco-German Human Rights Award, and the WOLA Human Rights Award, among others.
Olga Rodríguez
Cofunder, El Diario.es
Journalist and Spanish writer specialized in international information, the Middle East, and human rights. She is a co-founder of El Diario.es.
Her work on the Arab uprisings from Egypt in 2011, her chronicles during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, and her reports from Palestine, Afghanistan, and Syria along with her coverage of the refugees stand out. As well as her investigations and reports on impunity in Mexico, and her chronicles on the socioeconomic situation in Spain. She is the author of several books such as “El hombre mojado no teme la lluvia. Voices from the Middle East” (2009).
She has been recognized with the Honoris Causa Pimentel Fonseca Award, the Lupa Award, the International Press Club Award for Best Informative Work, the Focused Journalist Award, the Journalism and Human Rights Award, the Ortega y Gasset Collective Award and the Turia Award for Best Media Contribution, among others.
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