The choice of news, between the interesting and the important

A newspaper's message is what we say, but we must consider if what we leave unsaid is appropriate. There is an order of informative priorities that forces us to choose and discard. The readers to whom I dedicate this chronicle invite us to think precisely not about what we might say poorly, but about what we have remained silent about.The subscriber Josep Busquets raises with me that while the newspaper correctly covered the start of the Iran war on February 28, it did not make any reference to the Catalan Forum for Peace, which gathered more than two hundred people at Can Batlló, and which was organized by various entities led by ICIP (Catalan Institute for International Peace). “How is it possible that you have not reported this as news?” asks the subscriber, a member of the Aturem les Guerres platform, who also denounces that the newspaper has never said anything – despite being informed – about the weekly gatherings in front of the Ministry of Defense sub-delegation “asking to be able to talk about other alternatives other than militarization and war, non-violent civil defense”. By those coincidences of semantics, the building – military government of ill-fated memory of Francoist war councils– is at the Portal de la Pau!Deputy director David Miró, in charge of the political area, replies: “As the reader recognizes, on Saturday, February 28, the editorial staff of ARA had to make a great effort to report on the start of a war that, as is being demonstrated, had the potential to significantly alter our lives. That day all available sections and staff were dedicated to explaining the implications of that war to the reader. Unfortunately, making a newspaper is always a matter of priorities and many planned topics, for example Mònica Bernabé's report on meat industry workers, were dropped. On the other hand, in Barcelona, events and conferences are held every day that, from the editorial staff of ARA, we do not see ourselves as capable of covering, especially on a Saturday when available staff is drastically reduced. This was the case of the ICIP conferences. In any case, we do believe it is interesting, even more so in a context of war, to explain the Catalan peace movement in more detail. So we commit to doing so”. In identical texture –musically they would be the silences— of what we leave unsaid, the subscriber Alfonso Outeiriño, in a positive tone because he is happy with the newspaper's line, nevertheless expresses his "disappointment regarding the lack of mention of the fiftieth anniversary of the events in Vitoria on March 3, 1976, in which five workers were murdered by the bullets of the then-called Armed Police". And he adds: "And even more so when the day after the anniversary, the newspaper Avui ran a report also mentioning Lluís Llach, author of Campanades a morts, a record denouncing the events”. The reader knows the subject well because he lived for 24 years in Lazkao, in the heart of Goierri, a region with a great abertzale tradition and home to the Benedictine monastery that preserves the largest documentary collection on Basque nationalism of all kinds.The editor-in-chief, Xavier Cervantes, regrets not having covered the fiftieth anniversary of Vitòria simply due to an oversight, but recalls that it was discussed at the fortieth anniversary and hands me the proof of three articles on the Argentine lawsuit against Rodolfo Martín Villa.The reader Núria Antonio i Aloy does not complain about a thematic absence, but rather, to be more precise, about a missed question in the interview that David Miró himself conducted with the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau. The reader, a secondary school teacher with 22 years of teaching experience, denounces that the minister says they are increasing salaries by 30% and the journalist "just lets it go." "They haven't raised salaries by 30% at all!" she retorts. "In any case, it's 30% of the regional part, which was the third lowest in the State... And the increase is spread over four years." And she concludes by addressing us: "Journalists should know how to ask the pertinent questions and master the subject."David Miró admits the criticism: “The reader is right that I should have better clarified what the 30% increase consisted of, but at that moment of the interview it seemed more opportune to insist on the issue that it was an insufficient offer and to extract from him the commitment that if the new financing was approved, improvements could be considered, but perhaps I did not get it right and I assume the responsibility”.Before closing the section, I still receive an email from Roser Dachs, who identifies herself as a resident of a care home, regarding Marta Rodríguez's article on the matter (March 23rd) urges us to talk about the workers in the centers: "Of recognition for the people who work directly with the residents, people with great dedication, who need to really like the job they do, and I think that by the administration they are often treated with very little deference. With salaries far below what they deserve."I have asked for the authorized opinion on publication criteria from Carles Flo, with proven experience in positions of journalistic responsibility. He was editor-in-chief of Diari de Barcelona and La Vanguardia, director of Mundo Diario, and deputy director and director of Avui. Co-founder of VIA Empresa, he is currently its business director. This is his reflection:“A great director, like Jaume Serrats was [he directed Catalunya Exprés, Avui and the news services of Catalunya Ràdio and was general director of Cultural Promotion], said that a good newspaper is the balance between the interesting and the important. Furthermore, each reader has their own yardstick to decide what is important. The reality is that everyone who organizes an event considers what they have organized to be both relevant and interesting. And they complain to the newspaper because their topic is not published. And there are a lot of topics every day. If we add the needs of communication agencies, the pile of news on the table, or on each person in charge's computer, is immense. To top it off, newspapers have fewer pages every day and consequently there are a lot of unhappy readers every day”."In my opinion –continues Flo– the reader should trust more in the judgment of the journalist who decides every day what is published and what is not. Perhaps we should reflect on whether what we organize is so important or interesting to be published. In these times, dominated by inconsistent news, it is good to trust the professional judgment of journalists when deciding what is published and what is not. And not to forget that not everything enters a newspaper.”I thank the readers Busquets and Outeiriño and the readers Antonio and Dachs for having placed their trust in me to help us debate about the news that I don't know if they ever existed but surely we never published. I value the elegance of the responses of David Miró and Xavier Cervantes and I celebrate the sensible long-sighted comment of Carles Flo. And I encourage journalists to count to ten before publishing and to a hundred before deciding not to publish, especially if those harmed are goodness and humanism.The Reader's Advocate takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms and complaints about the newspaper's content in its digital and paper editions, and ensures that the treatment of information is in accordance with the deontological codes.To contact the Reader's Advocate 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, surnames and ID number is required.