The second LASAL, international festival of journalism and photography, highlights disinformation
El Masnou hosts from June 11 to 13 a program also focused on the war in Gaza and climate change
El MasnouThe Mediterranean Festival of Journalism and Photography, LASAL, will celebrate its second edition in El Masnou from June 11 to 13. The event will present a free program focused on current topics such as the war in Gaza, the climate crisis, or disinformation on social networks. One of the sessions will feature the deputy director of ARA, Carla Turró, who will have a conversation with journalist Agus Morales titled How to keep a print media alive. The head of photography for this newspaper, Ferran Forné, will also participate, in this case with a portfolio review workshop for professionals who want an external perspective on their work.
The festival aims to bring quality photojournalism and reporting closer to citizens, while promoting the recovery of trust in rigorous journalism in a context marked by disinformation. Actor Eduard Fernández is in charge of inaugurating the festival, and will open it by conversing with Dalia and Kayed Hammad, father and daughter, protagonists of the book Menu from Gaza, awarded last year with the Ortega y Gasset and Zampa prizes, which recounts the survival of a Palestinian family through the dishes they cook during the war.
The festival's facilities are spread across Cinema La Calàndria, the auditorium, the training rooms, and Ocata beach. Over three days, sessions are offered such as La Buloteca: how hoaxes are born (and how to stop them), promoted by the Maldita Foundation; Between hoaxes and facts, with journalist, filmmaker, and youtuber Carles Tamayo; the talk RIP Mare Nostrum, with journalists Xavier Aldekoa and Laura Aragó, or the international panel Climate as a cross-border story, which will bring together journalists Rawan Damen (ARIJ), Cecilia Anesi (IRPI), Supriya Sharma (The Scroll) and Preethi Nallu (Report for the World) to reflect on new journalistic narratives around climate change.
Books are also one of the festival's main focuses. The most notable presentations include that of the founder of Open Arms, Òscar Camps; photojournalist Santi Palacios; and editor Leopoldo Blume with his Open Arms. A mission against the current, a work that chronicles a decade of humanitarian missions in the Mediterranean, and that of journalist Óscar Martínez, who will present Bukele, the naked king, an analysis written from exile of the authoritarian measures of Nayib Bukele, president of the Republic of El Salvador.
Training will also be present with various activities aimed at students and professionals such as the workshop Pasta para periodistas, which will address funding routes for independent projects. The program is completed with educational and family activities, such as the cyanotype workshop –a handmade photographic printing technique– in public spaces, as well as photographic interventions in urban spaces that turn Masnou into an open visual tour.