Free and independent journalism, unfortunately, is in danger of extinction. But, as most of the winners of the 2024 National Journalism Award agreed, it is our responsibility not to let it die.
On Wednesday night, the 3rd, at the Mesón de San Antonio Vázquez in the city of Guanajuato, there were no complaints, but there were many voices from Mexican journalism who demanded better conditions to practice it in a dangerous country for this profession.
Despite the shadow that hangs over the profession, a call to action was also made, to think that the new generations need journalism to form an idea of what the country is now.
This idea was expressed during her words of gratitude by Daniela Ramírez Cervantes. Daniela, a journalist from El Siglo de Torreón, expressed her concern and was emphatic about the need to continue telling stories, especially in a country so hit by violence and repression.
“Journalism is an act of service and memory. It is born from the responsibility of narrating what happens in a wounded country like ours, where seeking the truth has become a form of resistance. Our work makes sense by opening space for the voices that support our country from dignity… even in the midst of pain,” said Daniela, who was in the final shortlist in the interview category for her work “Marcela Turati, the pen that narrates the disappearances in Mexico.”
Here is the list of the winners of the 2024 National Journalism Award
Nor is it a lie that power almost always seeks to put a stop to free journalism, as Daniela recognizes. “We thank the people who trust us, journalists, to tell their stories, even when fear and silence weigh heavily. Because we must have the impulse to continue doing journalism that makes the power uncomfortable, that accompanies the victims and keeps the memory alive. What we tell matters and as long as there are stories, we will be there to tell them.”
Necessary quality and rigor
The jury for the 2024 National Journalism Award was made up of 21 professionals from the media, research and teaching, from 12 states of the republic (Baja California, Mexico City, Colima, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Morelos, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán). Miguel Calderón López, who was in charge of conducting the event, participated in Diario de Yucatán, which is a member of the Association of State Editors (AEE). In addition to Yucatán, PREPA has member and associated newspapers in Baja California, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Sinaloa and Sonora.
Joatam de Basabe, president of the jury for this edition of the Award, was in tune during the opening speech of the award ceremony, which took place last Wednesday under the auspices of the Citizen Council of the National Journalism Award, AC and the University of Guanajuato.
“We must defend the quality and rigor of journalism, to be a counterweight to the three powers and to combat the misinformation that spreads daily on the Internet,” explained Joatam, representative of the Autonomous University of Baja California.
He was emphatic that the media—especially the independent ones that do not depend on any government entity—must remain “in the fight” to achieve the “permanence of freedom of expression and the press in our country, without exercising it costing us our jobs, security or lives.”
One of the most relevant awards was for reporting, awarded to the minute-by-minute reconstruction of the fire at a migrant stay in Ciudad Juárez, a tragedy that left 40 people dead and 27 seriously injured.
The project, the result of collaboration and informative rigor, arises in the midst of the crisis that is being experienced in all parts of Mexico, with voices that seek to silence the truth, and was able to expose the responsibility of the authorities in the events.
“We work with conviction in free and independent journalism. The one that is committed to social causes, and not to the interests of power, which generates tragedies like the one we documented,” said Rocío Gallegos Rodríguez, who together with Gabriela Minjares Baltazar and Blanca Carmona Orozco were the architects of the work.
“A necklace of gifts”
One of the most emotional moments of the ceremony came with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year was unanimously won – in this category there must be a total consensus among the jury – by Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab Wilhelm, an investigative journalist recognized for “her ability to monitor power, document its abuses, and combat corruption with rigor, patience and courage.”
Alejandra
Visibly moved, the also active member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), acknowledged that winning this category touched very strong fibers in her being, as she also highlights that “this award comes as a necklace of very beautiful gifts. The words of the jury touched me deeply. It is special because of the idea of receiving it for a career, one that has had a lot of accidents and deliberate decisions.”
The presidium was made up of Claudia Susana Gómez López, president of the Citizen Council of the National Journalism Award and general rector of the University of Guanajuato; Analletzin Díaz Alcalá, director of the Carlos Septién García School of Journalism; Norma Trujillo Báez, general director of University Communication at the Universidad Veracruzana; Juan Pablo Carbajal Mata, Administration Manager of the Association of State Editors; and Joatam de Basabe, president of the Jury of the 2024 National Journalism Award.— Miguel Ángel Calderón López