EL PAÍS has announced the winners of a special edition of the 2026 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards to mark its 50th anniversary. The recipients are Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, and US editor Martin Baron. The ceremony will take place in Barcelona on May 4.
In a special edition marking EL PAÍS's 50th anniversary on May 4, the 2026 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards go to three standout figures: Svetlana Alexievich, Sergio Ramírez, and Martin Baron. The ceremony will occur at Barcelona's Museu Maritim on the newspaper's birthday, half a century after its founding, as announced by the jury last Friday. Composed of Joseph Oughourlian, Pilar Gil, Jan Martínez Ahrens, Soledad Alcaide, Cecilia Castelló, and Javier Moreno—with Pedro Zuazua as non-voting secretary—the jury praised the awardees for 'honesty, courage, ethics, and craft' amid journalism's challenges. Alexievich was lauded for 'her excellence in applying oral history,' citing works like Voices from Chernobyl and Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets. Ramírez, Nicaragua's former vice president (1985-1990) and longtime EL PAÍS contributor, was called a 'moral referent' whose journalism serves as 'a moral compass for millions.' Baron, who led The Boston Globe—where the Spotlight team uncovered sexual abuses in the Boston archdiocese—and The Washington Post (2013-2021), earning 18 Pulitzers, was hailed as 'a great newspaper director' for his impact and independence, detailed in Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post. This edition means the next will cover 2025 and 2026 works.
