The prize was initially news: for the first time Gestau featured not a column, but a series of reports, or better yet, an effort embodied in three verbs: go, see, tell. Although there is more and more: explain, understand, listen, ask, walk, follow, follow, insist, … Be silent… All this was done by the reporter Andros Lozano and the photographer Alberto De Lolli, who went to Senegal for several days to investigate, fourteen hours a day, what was happening in the middle of the boat crisis in the Canary Islands. From there they came up with a story in several parts – “Journey to the Kaioko Exodus Center”, published in “El Mundo” – which is now recognized by the profession. The sixth Gestau concert was to celebrate all that has not changed in journalism, and the things that are still made with hands, feet and words.
So said Lozano himself, who began by thanking him for having a kind of journalism “that is at the genesis of our profession, but that we often forget: going to places no matter how far away, listening to people, asking and questioning and then coming back to the blank page and explaining the world we live in… a journalism that has become increasingly unusable, in general, but in the medium in which Alberto and I practice (“mundo”) it is still very present. Alberto knows it as well as I do. “He, with his cameras, is another tireless player in The streets, whether in this city during daily life or in the muddy streets of Valencia during the recent floods or those on the island of La Palma when lava began sliding down its slopes.”
De Lolli emphasized this: “So that such an important award does not go to our heads, we reporters have an infallible antidote: go out into the streets and see incredible life stories like the ones being awarded today. Looking at them, it is hard to believe that what we are doing has anything unusual. There was applause.
“So that such an important award does not go to our heads, we reporters are lucky to take to the streets.”
Alberto De Lolli
press photographer
Before, Jesús García Calero, ABC’s cultural director and presenter of Sarao, explained: “This is not just another year. For the first time the Gestau Prize has given a report, and I believe that this natural difference, or natural evolution of the award, makes the jury worthy of recognition. Up until now we have mainly rewarded opinion pieces and some records. But David was a multi-faceted journalist, and in his name he rewards dear colleagues who introduce themselves every year with an additional difficulty: comparing the most difficult to compare genres. He then cited the journalists responsible for the challenge: Ana Isabel Sanchez, deputy director of ABC; Leri Iglesias, deputy director of the opinion department at El Mundo; Manuel Jaboa, journalist and columnist for the newspapers “El Pais” and “La Serre”; John Mueller, ABC op-ed writer and columnist; Eva Serrano, editor-in-chief of the editorial magazine Círculo de Tiza; Juan Soto Ávares, writer and columnist for El Confidencial; and Gonzalo Suarez, editor-in-chief of El Mundo newspaper. And to the award sponsors: ACS Foundation and Santander.
On the podium, ABC director Julian Quiros said one of those phrases that liven up any party: “This is a celebratory act of journalism and, fortunately, not a secret one, although we live in a time when propaganda goes so far as to surround the press, with surprise to see the enthusiastic support of so many journalists determined to favor power.” He added: “The independent journalism recognized by the David Guestau Prize, of course, cannot be done with the arguments of Moncloa, Ferraz, Genova or Bamboo.”
Like every year, there was a moment to remember Gestau. “He was a revolutionary in style that dared to mix everything: high politics, neighborhood saga and culture, rock music and literature, the Bernabeu press gallery and international politics, humor and sadness,” said Joaquín Manso, director of El Mundo. Ana Sanchez, president of the jury, added: “Gestau had his own way of exercising this function: to look without intensity, not to trust what is imposed, to avoid unnecessary emphasis, to say what matters without demanding importance. He was, at heart, a journalist who believed in something as simple — and increasingly extraordinary — as going places. And this is exactly what the authors of the winning work did. (…) Their reports avoid the temptation of drama and slogans. “They are doing the hardest thing: explaining the tragedy without exploiting the tragedy.”
“This is a celebratory act of journalism, and fortunately, it is not secret.”
Julian Quiros
ABC Director
Andros Lozano also remembered Gestau: “I never met him in person. I did not speak a word to him on the phone. But I read him a lot and listened to him a lot on the radio, as if I knew him. His directness, his freedom, and his shared obsession with understanding what was happening in certain places and why these were the heroes and not others, has always been a beacon in my way of understanding the profession. Go, listen, look, smell, walk, doubt… His reports, his records, his columns brought it all together. Old and at the same time young journalism. Good journalism in short. De Lolli said that receiving an award bearing his name turns honor into affection. He claimed naivety as a journalistic value.
“Journalism going to places, no matter how far away, is useless.”
“Those of you who know me know that I still believe in journalism in a somewhat naive way. I must admit that this naivety is not involuntary at all, because naivety is something I consciously cultivate. After many years of taking pictures, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to see reality well is to strip away what you think you know. Only in this way, while maintaining this sense of wonder, can one open the doors of reality and make others allow you into the intimacy of their lives so that you can tell them. He said goodbye in celebration of the tabula rasa: it is not a curse, but a gift. “We craftsmen start every day with a new blank slate. With a little luck, they gave you a prize yesterday, or maybe you were seriously wrong. It doesn’t matter much, because the most important thing is never what you signed for today.” Before, but the doors that someone will open for you tomorrow so that you can tell their story (…) Thank you very much for this celebratory bow, and we will see each other tomorrow on that blank page that we have to do.
The ceremony ended with applause for the winners and Bianca Gestau, who was celebrating her birthday.