Emerging technologies and their role in protecting (or threatening) free journalism, the situation in Gaza or freedom of expression are some of the topics that emerged during the meeting with partners that brought together more than 300 readers of elDiario.es with the director, Ignacio Escolar; the deputy director and head of the editorial team in Catalonia, Neus Tomàs; and the founder and member of the Management Committee, Olga Rodríguez, who spoke for an hour with readers of elDiario.es at the Center de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona (CCCB).
This meeting kicked off the Festival of Ideas and Culture, held in Barcelona on 28 and 29 June, and gave members the opportunity to express their views, make proposals and complain about the way the media works. One of the first topics to emerge from readers was concerns about freedom of expression and uncomfortable information resulting from the agreement reached by Julian Assange to gain his freedom in exchange for pleading guilty to the crime of conspiracy to obtain classified information.
“It seems terrible to me that the years he has spent without freedom, but also that self-incrimination is the way out of this situation. “I'm not going to blame him for what he has done, but the message is terrible.” This is what Escolar considered. “We are not aware of how serious it is that whoever reveals important information ends up like Assange,” concluded the director of elDiario.es.
For Olga Rodríguez, what happened to Assange illustrates some of the risks that journalism will face in the coming years. Asked by a partner about what worries the management of elDiario.es in the short term, she believed that the most important thing is to “maintain freedom at a time when there are many obstacles and sobering messages that reach us and that we receive with concern.”
With these words, Rodríguez opened the door to one of the topics that has taken up the most time in the conversation with the partners: the situation in Gaza. The founder of elDiario.es has been to Palestinian territory several times and has shared with her partners her concerns about the weak human rights situation. But he also wanted to leave room for hope: “even in moments when brutal things happen, there are scenarios of opportunity.” With this, Rodríguez wanted to convey an optimistic message and, quoting Eduardo Galeano, he assured that “many small people, doing small things, in small places, can change the world.”
The rise of technology
The meeting with partners started with the intervention of several readers who shared doubts with the director of elDiario.es about the operation of the 'app' and the website, and ended with Escolar showing the features of the application on his own phone Partners knew not.
After this anecdote, which caused a lot of laughter among those present, the debate on the rise of technology was opened with a question from a member who proposed the possibility of listening to the articles and not just reading them. Escolar has acknowledged that it is an option that is already being tested in the culture section, where audio is generated with Artificial Intelligence. And he has even explained that it is being considered that some opinion articles could be read by the authors, so that readers can hear their voice.
The editorial staff of elDiario.es is studying the potential of AI, which can also have advantages, explains Escolar, who has admitted that Juanlu Sánchez, director of the podcast 'A topic a day', occasionally uses it. “After recording an episode, if you realize something is wrong, you ask the AI to correct it, as if it were a tipex.”
Another innovation under discussion is the possibility of publishing a Catalan version of the news in the Catalunya section. “We are looking forward to an edition in Catalan,” Escolar acknowledged. For its part, Neus Tomàs has also embraced this idea, but has pointed out that before launching it, he wants to guarantee quality. “We don't want automatic translations. We are an edition that takes great care of the information it produces with few hands and we want to guarantee the best for the readers,” says Tomàs.
The secrets of elDiario.es
At the end of the conversation with the partners, Jualu Sánchez, deputy director of elDiario.es and director of the podcast 'Un Tema al Día', and Toño Fraguas, editor-in-chief, took the stage. At that point, the cameras broadcasting the event were turned off. stream to create a space in 'petit committee' in which they told intra-stories from the daily life of the editors.
The partners present heard the best-kept secrets of how elDiario.es was faked (including a Zara and a pair of sweatpants), as well as some of the most obscene and humorous comments heard in the editorial office, which the authors will deny ever having uttered . Those who attended the CCCB event have always heard confidential information in exchange for keeping the secret.
The meeting with members and readers was the first act of the Festival of Ideas and Culture which elDiario.es celebrates in Barcelona on June 28 and 29. This edition of the festival, already held in Valencia and A Coruña, offers debates and conversations with international names such as Margaret Atwood and events with cultural icons such as Juan Diego Botto, Remedios Zafra or Santiago Alba Rico.
There will also be room for laughter with monologues from Mongolia magazine and Bob Pop, a live La Ruïna podcast and even a cooking special with the Torres brothers. All this between Plaça Catalunya and the CCCB. Here you can view all lectures and activities.