The ARA awards prizes to teenagers from Girona who speak out against 'fake news'

GironaThe festivities for this year's edition of the ARA Children's Daily have come to a close. On Tuesday morning, November 25th, at the La Mercè Cultural Center in Girona, the awards ceremony was held for the teenagers from the seven primary and secondary schools in the city of Girona who illustrated the special edition of the newspaper on November 20th, coinciding with World Children's Day. This 2025 edition... The central theme was the fake news And for the first time in the project's 13 years, the students not only illustrated the newspaper's interviews, news stories, and reports, but also wrote some of the published articles themselves. Specifically, the young people from Girona signed the articles of the supplement Girona Regions last ThursdayThe publication, comprised entirely of articles, illustrations, and opinion pieces written by teenagers from 5th grade to 4th year of ESO (secondary school), from the participating schools: FEDAC Sant Narcís; Montessori; and the Montilivi, Jaume Vicens Vives, Maristas, Mediodía, and Ermesenda high schools. At the awards ceremony, held for the second consecutive year in Girona, all the teenagers were able to read their own work and received a copy of the 20th edition of the newspaper as a gift. Accustomed to screens and getting their news that way, they consulted the papers repeatedly, something they had likely rarely done before, delighted to see their work recognized in a traditional print publication.

Pinocchios and puppets on the award-winning covers

Throughout the morning, all the students who won awards in the various categories took to the stage. Young people like Alba Reyes, from 2nd year of ESO at the Montilivi Institute, who won the special drawing prize with a mannequin that moves like a puppet while burning over hot coals, featured on the cover of the supplement. Girona Regions of the 20th. "I wanted to show that the fake news"Because we spend so much time on our phones, they're controlling us teenagers. We shouldn't believe everything we're told. The fire represents that we must stop it," Reyes explained.

Another winning drawing was by Mateu Puxan, a 10th-grade student at Vicens Vives school, which graced the cover of the Diari dels Infants. It depicts Pinocchio with a red nose against a background of newspaper pages. "I wanted to show that fake news doesn't just come through newspapers, but also through other media like television and radio," he explained. Sergi Clusa, from the same school and grade, also drew a Pinocchio, this time with a malevolent face and a long nose piercing a puppet made of newspaper clippings, drawing blood. "When you're manipulated, they can do whatever they want with you. With Pinocchio, I wanted to represent that lies make the nose grow and pierce the truth," he commented.

The Diari dels Infants project, coordinated in Girona by Mariona Ferrer, ARA's delegate for the region and the presenter of the event, is supported by the Girona City Council, UNICEF, and the Educational Platform. Following the institutional speeches by Quima Oliver, director of the UNICEF Catalonia Office, and David Ruiz, representative of the Educational Platform, the Girona City Council's Education Councillor closed the event by addressing the teenagers: "You have shown us that you are not mere spectators of the fake news"In their texts and illustrations, we discover a culture of asking questions, a superpower we hold in our hands, and it shows that you have learned that, before believing a news story, you have to ask yourself many questions about the information in front of you," he concluded.