David Jiménez and Jorge Valdano awarded for their journalistic career

Jiménez was awarded the Ítaca award for his career by another leading figure in the profession and winner of the same award in one of the previous editions, journalist Rosa Maria Calaf. Both of them held a conversation about the present and future of journalism in which José Manuel Pérez Tornero, UAB lecturer of journalism and founder of the Communication and Education Bureau, also participated. Jiménez was "very moved" by the distinction received from the hands of a "friend" and "leader" like Calaf, and praised the work of the Bureau and its director, Santiago Tejedor.

The award winner commented on the multiple aspects threatening the right to information and democracy existing today, from the economic power accumulated through social networks, to the sad role of Europe on the international stage, including the rise of far-right "propagandists" and "agitators". He referred to his own professional difficulties, when he had to leave the management of the newspaper and did not straighten out his professional career until the success of his book El Director (Libros del KO). He addressed the students present at the event to reflect on their responsibility as future journalists: "you must recover lost ground" in these times in which, as he said, "lies are winning". And he continued: "As journalists, we have the obligation to unmask abuses of power and manipulations". And he highlighted that journalism will have to learn to connect with audiences in the same way as influencers are doing.

Jorge Valdano, former footballer, coach, manager and broadcaster received the Communication and Values ​​award and held a dialogue with journalist Martín Caparrós, also winner of the Ítaca award. Valdano spoke about his career and the communicative appeal of football, recalling the importance of the radio broadcasts that he followed as a young man: "the goal, without a story, is not the same". And he asked himself: "Why are footballers so important? Because they excite us. Everyone who follows a football match is twelve years old again". In addition, according to Valdano, "there is another element that makes football fascinating and it is the fact that things can happen during the match that we could not even imagine".

Commitment and responsibility

Football journalism was the guiding theme of this year's conference and for this reason, in the opening speeches, Tornero reflected that, "when journalism becomes fanatical, football-oriented, it is terrible". And he gave as examples in the opposite direction the journeys of Jiménez and Valdano, which demonstrate that "journalism means commitment to humanity, not to sectarianism". The director of the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies at the UAB, Cristina Pulido, drew a parallel between the team sport nature of football and journalistic practice, and praised the fact that the Travel, Communication and Adventure Conference reached its fourteenth edition this year. Faculty Dean Juan José Perona assured that "more than ever, it is necessary to reaffirm the traditional values ​​of journalism", that is, "the rigour of information, the truth, contrasting sources and, above all, responsibility towards our raw material, which is information, and towards society as a whole".