President Salvador Illa has congratulated El Nacional on its tenth anniversary and defended rigorous journalism against informational trivialisation. The event took place on Monday night in Barcelona.
An event held on Monday night at the Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona brought together much of the Catalan political class to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the newspaper El Nacional. According to the media's own report, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, closed the evening with a speech about the role of the press in a democracy.
Illa described journalism as an urgent necessity and cited El Nacional as an example, congratulating it for its work in verifying and prioritising information. In his speech, he warned of the risk of trivialisation of information, at a time when the digital environment can place experts and commentators on the same level.
The president also alerted to the dangers of social media, which, according to him, tend to create bubbles where citizens only consume like-minded opinions. In contrast, he defended reading media with different editorial lines.
“Nothing stimulates me more than reading people who think completely differently.”
The editor of El Nacional, José Antich, received congratulations from other public officials. The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and the president of the Parlament de Catalunya, Josep Rull, highlighted the value of a media outlet that informs from Catalonia and in Catalan.
Illa also valued the presence of representatives from almost the entire Catalan political spectrum at the celebration, something he described as very exceptional. As this Thursday marks the start of the electoral campaign, he urged parties to approach it with the utmost respect for citizens and for opponents.
Among the members of the Govern who accompanied the president were the councillors Francesc Xavier Vila, Sílvia Paneque, and Ramon Espadaler, who joined the numerous representation of the attending political class.
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