Costa Rican journalist Alexander Rivera Gonzalez won the “Rey de España” International Journalism Award on the Television category for 2017. The recognition granted on February 1st was given to a program conducted by Rivera González on the devastating effect of natural disasters such as Hurricane Mathew and an earthquake in Haiti.
The Rey de España International Awards are held since 1983 when they were created by the EFE Agency and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and after 35 editions it is the most prestigious award given to Journalists and Social Communicators of Ibero-America
The country where it is never spring
The awarded program, entitled “The country where it is never spring,” is 26.26 minutes long, and was broadcast in November 2016 by Televisora de Costa Rica-Teletica Canal 7. The television report recalls the terrible earthquake suffered by the Caribbean country in 2010 and the worsening of the situation by the devastating hurricane Matthew while trying to overcome the earthquake disaster.The consequences of this catastrophe still affect the Haitian people.
The award was granted by a jury of journalists and communicators from various Ibero-American countries who highlighted the fact that a country like Costa Rica has a supportive look towards a land so affected and with a situation as critical as Haiti.
Alexander Rivera is a young and talented tico, born in San José and currently part of the journalist staff of Teletica, the awarded is a reporter especially interested in human stories and interviews, who likes to show the human side of the news, his professional work also is highlighted in the analysis of data journalism.
2017 “Rey de España” Award winners
This year, the call created to recognize the value of Spanish-speaking communicators featured the presentation of 274 works from 19 countries in Latin America in eight categories. The following were winners, in addition to Rivera Gonzalez:
Juan Roberto Mascardi Vigani (Argentina) won the Ibero-American Journalism Award for “Farré, the player who had forgotten to score goals”.
Santiago Saldarriaga Quintero (Colombia) won the category of Photography for an image published in El Tiempo, entitled “The challenge of getting back up,” which illustrated the effects of landslides and floods in Mocoa, Colombia
Alicia Hernández Sánchez, (Spanish resident in Venezuela) Received the prize in the Press category for an article published in The New York Times about the illegal trafficking of gasoline in Venezuela.
Julio Batista Rodríguez (Cuba) Won the Special Award for Environmental Journalism and Sustainable Development for his report “the dead waters of Havana Club”. His report, published in Barrio Journalism, draws attention to spills that have left no fish in Chipriona’s inlet.
Rute Isabel da Silva Fonseca (Portugal) Won in the category of Radio for its 37-minute program on TSF Rádio Noticias, about a family that has been making violins for three generations.
Patricia Toledo de Campos (Brazil) With a team of 20 people won the Digital Journalism award for her work “A world of Walls”, published in Folha de Sao Paulo. The work was a denunciation of the physical barriers that separate people.
Fernando Aramburu (Spain) Received the Don Quijote Journalism Award for his article “We are made of words”, which was published on El Mundo.
The award is endowed with 6,000 euros (€) and a bronze sculpture by the artist Joaquín Vaquero Turcios, sponsored by the international construction and concessions group OHL. Every year the king delivers the prizes to all these communicators during an act that takes place in the city of Madrid.