The Association of Journalists of Cantabria (Asociación de Periodistas de Cantabria) gathered last Friday at the Hotel Bahía more than a hundred Communication professionals, among which there was an important presence of teachers of UNEATLANTICO as the academic director of the degrees in Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations, and Audiovisual Communication, Ana Visiers; the president of the APC, Lola Gallardo; and the former vice-president, Marcos Bermejo.
The Association of Journalists of Cantabria held last Friday its gala in Santander on the occasion of the feast of the patron saint: St. Francis de Sales. An event that “served as a reminder of the importance of the work of journalists in democracy,” as the association itself has stated in a press release. In this way, the APC has shown “its commitment to truth and honesty as ethical principles that govern the profession,” claiming “the importance of unity among professionals to face current challenges.”
Specifically, the teacher of UNEATLANTICO and president of the APC, journalist Lola Gallardo, insisted in her speech on “the essential work of journalists in a democratic society like ours” and, in this sense, denounced the attacks on the free exercise of journalism received in the last year. “We have demanded an end to certain anti-democratic practices, such as the singling out of journalists, online harassment, the exclusion of media and journalists from meetings, press conferences without questions, or attempts by some politicians to decide who is a journalist and who is not,” she stressed.
Likewise, Gallardo invited the youngest people, referring to the students of UNEATLANTICO who will be the journalists of tomorrow, to join the recently created Association of Young Journalists (Agrupación de Jóvenes Periodistas) “so that you, the young people, will be the ones to implement the projects that you like and are interested in.”
Acknowledgments
One of the emotional moments of the evening was the presentation of the first honorary membership diploma to the oldest member, Carmen Sollet, after which the journalist and writer Juan Carlos Flores-Gispert received the 17th Estrañi Awars, in recognition of his professional career, as well as his research work on the history of Santander in the last century.
In a speech full of anecdotes and professional memories, he acknowledged that “I could not be anything else but a journalist” and considered it “fundamental” to train and inform oneself every day in order to develop the profession with dignity. Finally, he recommended that new journalists entering the profession to “take care of the sources” of information. “You have to be persevering and start very early to weave the network of your contacts because you never know when they will provide you with a scoop,” he stressed.