Journalistic alerts for climate change

The reader Josep Maria Ferré sent me two complaint emails regarding the news coverage of the rains in the Camp de Tarragona region on August 22nd.“It is 9:47 a.m. and torrential rains of up to 200 mm have fallen tonight in towns on the Costa Daurada between Altafulla and Roda de Berà. All night there have been problems with hundreds of displaced people and three injured due to the collapse of a wall in Roda.ARA says nothing about it. Neither in the newspaper section nor in the breaking news section. In this section, the news that the Taliban have separate offices for men and women was published at 8:00 AM.When I see these things I cannot help but wonder if this news would have been equally ignored if in Barcelona capital there were more than 500 displaced people, three injured and numerous material damages.I do not know the reason why ARA has not done the job I expect from it. It could be due to negligence in the work, a deficient internal organization, wrong priorities, or who knows! I am left with the feeling that it is no longer the place to go to get informed when I want objective information. A pity”.Since, shortly after, ARA reacted by publishing the news, I replied with the link corresponding, arguing that the tempi of television, which had responded with immediacy, and those of the press run on different metronomes. The reader then urged me to investigate “if there has been negligence or a mistaken policy of priorities” in publishing the news six hours after the events.I have relayed the reader Ferré's criticisms to the deputy editor Catalina Serra, who was the highest authority at the newspaper during that weekend's shift. She argues:“First of all, we understand the reader's complaints regarding less intense coverage of what happens in the regions of Tarragona, a problem of which, being a newspaper with its headquarters and the bulk of the staff in Barcelona, we are aware and concerned. We try to compensate with the monthly supplement that has been published in the newspaper for ten years, and which has its own web section, and also with a commitment to incorporate topics of all kinds, not just the news of the day, in the different sections of the newspaper.In the case of the downpours this past Saturday in Tarragona –he continues– two circumstances coincided. On one hand, our correspondent's vacation, who was out of the area; and, on the other, the fact that it was the month of August and the weekend, which always makes us operate with a smaller staff and hinders the speed of response regarding coverage possibilities. Likewise, seeing what has happened, we are working on a protocol so that in no case will the regions of Tarragona be left without coverage despite these circumstances.However, from the first hour through the weather information, which included data on what had happened early in the morning, a push was sent at 8 a.m. explaining that the downpours had occurred. It was not known at that time that there were injured people.This is the information that was pushed at 8 in the morning.Subsequently, on the web, with information from agencies that arrived with the injured around 9, a report was created which was verified beforehand with other media outlets. It is true that it took us longer to publish than would have been desirable, partly because we were waiting for a photo of the area that did not arrive until later. For this reason, we finally published first with the photo of the downpours in other areas before having the good image, but this waiting time delayed the publication. Of this information, of which there are 21 versions because it was being modified throughout the day, a first push was made at 10. The headline was modified as information arrived. From that time on, the news was, first, as the third news item, and later, once we had the good photo, as the second news item in the large photo-news section on the newspaper's main page. And throughout the day, it was maintained in the continuous updates.Regarding whether it was a matter of priorities or negligence, we are aware that our role is primarily to provide information about what is happening around us, therefore, this is our priority. If the reader saw other news published at the last minute before the one about the floods that day, it is because they were already written and scheduled to be published at that time and, therefore, they appeared when they were supposed to. In relation to the negligence, I would rather speak of a delay. In this sense, I apologize for the gap in the publication because, indeed, we were late, and the lack of staff that day is no excuse. Since that day, however, we have always been on top of it and have reported on what was happening. I am sending a screenshot –concludes the deputy director– of how the Home page of the newspaper looked at 10 in the morning, 10 minutes after what the reader who complains that there was nothing there mentions, so that it can be seen that, as soon as we could, the news was well present there”.

I hope that reader Ferré is satisfied with Catalina Serra's exhaustive explanation. For my part, I would note three alerts that we will have to solve. The generic one, to reflect and dynamically establish methodologies on the journalistic treatment of a climate change that is already affecting us in such a way. Annex H of the Code of Ethics gives clues on how to do it, and specifies by focusing on the topic we are analyzing: “Prioritize local issues. The consequences of the climate crisis throughout Catalonia are undoubted. For this reason, many efforts must be dedicated to locating and covering these local issues to guarantee territorial representation. These coverages reinforce the urgency and proximity in time and space of the climate crisis”.It is clear that, in this sense, our coverage was not up to the mark, and even more so if we add that a few days after the storm two injured women in Roda de Berà died; I have followed it and there is a whole human story behind it. This leads me to the second conclusion, stated by the deputy director: holiday periods should not be an excuse to justify drops in informative quality, especially when, despite the correspondent Jordi Mumbrú being on vacation, the collaborator Jordi Salvat, who is co-responsible for the Tarragona supplement, was not, and he was not activated.Finally, the recurring problem, which I have already addressed in other columns, of the comparative grievance regarding the informative treatment of Tarragona and the Terres de l'Ebre, especially in relation to Barcelona. The ad hoc protocol announced by Catalina Serra should be completed diligently, even more so when in this section, two years ago, the reader Francesc Roma, an expert in the field, proposed to us “a reflection by the editorial team in order to internalize climatic aspects in the analysis and description of current events”. But for the moment, in practice, the ARA has taken note and has followed the warnings from Meteocat and Civil Protection from last Wednesday punctually in real time.The Reader's Ombudsman takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms and complaints about the newspaper's contents in its digital and print editions, and ensures that the treatment of information is in accordance with codes of ethics.To contact the Readers' Ombudsman you can send an email to eldefensor@ara.cat or record a message of no more than one minute to the WhatsApp number 653784787. In all cases, identification with name, surname and ID number is required.