 |
Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez and Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chairman and CEO of CEMEX.
|
MONTERREY, Mexico. In a ceremony presided over by Colombian Nobel laureate
Gabriel García Márquez, President of the Iberian-American New
Journalism Foundation (FNPI), and Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chairman and CEO of CEMEX,
four individuals were awarded the CEMEX-FNPI New Journalism Prize for their
commitment to excellence in journalism: Claudio Cerri and Ernesto de Souza for
journalistic copy; Diego Levy for photography; and Julio Scherer, for his lifetime
achievements.
Prior to awarding the prizes, the Governing Board of the Award issued a statement
that was read by Argentinean author Tomás Eloy Martínez. The 447
texts and 154 photographic works that competed for the award, he said, reflect
Latin America's "social drama," particularly corruption, "which
is unmasked with increasingly more freedom and, of course, with higher risk."
|
|
The winners during the ceremony.
|
Claudio Cerri, 49, born in Rio Claro, Brazil, began his career as a journalist
in 1973. He has worked since 1989 as a special reporter for Globo Rural magazine
in Brazil. His winning work, "A River in Search of a Nation" chronicled
his journey through the San Francisco River in Brazil in collaboration with
Ernesto de Souza, Globo Rural's photographic editor.
Diego Levy, 27, a photojournalist since 1991, is now a freelancer for several
Argentinean publications. He previously worked for five years, starting in 1996,
for the Clarin daily in Buenos Aires, covering events in Chile, Cuba, Brazil,
and Uruguay. The jury selected his photographic essay on urban violence in Argentina,
published in the Revista Dominical, a supplement to Buenos Aires' daily La Nacion.
|
Julio Scherer, 75, was born in Mexico City and has devoted more than 50 years
of his life to journalism. He worked as a reporter for the Mexican daily Excelsior
for 20 years and headed the newspaper for several years, until 1976 when he
was removed from his post by President Echeverria's administration. After he
left Excelsior, he founded Proceso, a weekly magazine of politics and analysis,
with several fellow reporters. He spent the next 20 years as Proceso's editor-in-chief.
|
Julio Scherer
|
"If we understand 'attitude' as each person's must, as loyalty to those
values that rule a career, then Scherer's attitude focuses on attachment to
the profession," said Carlos Monsiváis, the Mexican writer who presented
a summary of Scherer's career. "His guiding principle is clear: the only
conceivable privileged information is the reader's."
In his acceptance speech, Scherer recalled the first years of Proceso, after
the "Echeverrian" blow to Excelsior; the paradoxical situation in
which he found himself during those days; and the spirit in which his friends
and colleagues had to see "what I did not see."
|
Scherer further expounded on how absolute power corrupts. "Corruption destroys
principles, degrades habits and jeopardizes desire, the immaterial grace of
life. The refuge that shelters and isolates power is built with abominable
materials; impunity provides an arsenal for whatever is needed: confidential
information, invasion of privacy, threats, torture."
|
The author of Máxima Seguridad and Los Presidentes also talked about
the "other powers": the spectacle of pain and violence as a colorful
ritual. "Manipulation commands the world," he said, making reference
to excesses by mass media and governments.
The CEMEX-FNPI New Journalism Prize was created to promote excellence in journalism
and to reward those individuals committed to its integrity in Latin America
and in the Caribbean. The Prize is the result of a strategic alliance for social
development between the Iberian-American New Journalism Foundation (Fundación
Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, or FNPI), headquartered in Cartagena de Indias,
Colombia, and CEMEX, a leading global cement company, based in Monterrey, Mexico.
|
|
|
|
