Accounting. Open letter.

Dear readers,

It's been a year since the management of the ARA newspaper entrusted me with the job of Readers' Ombudsman, and it's time to give an account. Being the figure of the Personal Ombudsman - as is the Ombudsman's Office and the ombuds In general – and since the interactions I have had with you are personal, I believe that the open letter is a direct form that corresponds to correspondence.

Between May 12, 2024, and May 11, 2025, I published 28 articles, an average of 2.33 per month. The decimals represent the two months in which the calendar allowed for three articles, following the biweekly schedule. You'll see the figures for my work in the infographics, so I'll briefly outline them here.

I have dealt with more than twice as many communications as I have been unable to. The response, regulated by the Ombudsman's Statute available to them, is governed by the criteria of quantity (the highest number of complaints on a topic) and quality (importance determined primarily by the Code of Ethics of the journalistic profession in Catalonia). Be that as it may, I have read them all, and I appreciate their value, because each one contains interesting reflections, some of which demonstrate great analytical competence and academic standing, and the senders in all of them provide their full personal identity. To the extent that the work hierarchy allows, I will try to deal with more.

I therefore emphasize the great value of readers' contributions, who are the true protagonists of this section, in a communication ecosystem where interaction is highly valued, and who help us improve the newspaper, which this exercise creates as receivers who are also transmitters. Published or not, their opinions have been passed on to the editorial team, and in many cases have been taken into consideration, given that in all cases they help us to be more demanding and improve the product.

The highest incidence of complaints is directly proportional to the sections with the most pages; those assigned to the Readers' Advocate (DL) are the ones I've taken on directly, especially those I haven't been able to address, and those that go to the editor's office not because the editorship attracts more criticism but because they are issues where the connotation surpasses the denotation of the specific section. It's very significant that the topic that garners the most comments from readers is language. In a Catalan-language newspaper, where the language is situated in the complex coordinates of hostilities and unevenly distributed, if not disloyal, powers (I titled one of the articles "In my battered language," quoting Raimon), there is a percentage of readers who are positive and proactive advocates for the language, and whose contributions help us be doubly demanding in this regard. On the other side of the onslaught, however, lies a language of great lexical and grammatical richness, with a remarkable literature and an ongoing debate that enriches it, and a newspaper, as a great container and disseminator, must echo this.

I must also express my gratitude for the editorial staff's good response to readers' complaints. The Ombudsman's visit to the journalists questioned is sometimes unflattering, but ARA's staff have risen to the challenge, acknowledging or refuting the criticism, and, in either case, have always been respectful. The synergy of criticism and contrast, reader and editor, also allows for a snapshot of the newspaper, a making-of which contributes to defining the current press as a community or system in which one does not exist without the other, and they must necessarily coexist, feeding off each other in an intersection.

When I've addressed the most sensitive topics, where readers' positive demands put us to the test, I've sought external expert opinions, seeking to involve professionals with a track record of excellence and/or affiliated with various Catalan universities. This year, these pages have featured PhDs from the UB, the URV, the UAB, the UPC, the UOC, and the UPF, and I will endeavor to expand the cartography of regulated knowledge.

Earlier this month, I attended the annual meeting of the Organization of News Ombudsmen and Standards Editors (ONO) as an observer. At international meetings, it is immediately apparent that "bad times for lyricsThey have moved on to journalism, saying that there are countries where journalists are murdered, imprisoned, or censored, and that the populist tendencies of seemingly consolidated democracies have thrown freedom of expression into disarray, the paradigm of the United States.

The Ombudsman's role is a very solitary one, so putting the work in context helps provide jurisprudence on classic issues of the profession, which are being revived with cutting-edge developments, such as the distinction between information and advertising or the concept of digital censorship. The ONO also anticipates new challenges, such as the ethical regulation of journalism carried out with the help of artificial intelligence or going beyond corporate legal and police sources in the face of the abominable scourge of gender violence, which is already one of the most recurring themes in the news. The corollary is that journalism must increasingly be more sensitive to the contributions of recipients, readers in our case, to positively impact the feedback and knowing how to understand when, in addition to giving their opinion, they are suggesting how to address street issues and points of social interest, obscured by the proliferation and sometimes unhealthy and sedentary dependence on official sources.

Readers, thank you again for all of this. I look forward to your comments, and I encourage you to leave them, assuring you that they will always be useful and welcome. Yours sincerely, and please feel free to share.

The Readers' Ombudsman pays attention to doubts, suggestions, criticisms and complaints about the contents of the newspaper in its digital and paper editions, and ensures that the treatment of information is in accordance with the codes of ethics.

By contact the Readers' Ombudsman You can send an email to eldefensor@ara.cat or record a message of no more than one minute on WhatsApp at 653784787. In all cases, identification with your name, surname, and ID number is required.