With this chronicle, the Reader's Advocate section reaches sixty pages, which, on a fortnightly basis, is two years and a bit. Sixty pages of newspaper, in my format, are about 420,000 characters in round numbers, the same as a 250-page book approximately. A good time to do a summer chronicle of making of my work, with the understanding that next month I will present the data from the balance of the last year to the newspaper's editorial board and will make them public.Errors are naturally a constant in the complaints I receive, most of them related to linguistic issues, which show the importance of language for Catalan press readers, who love the language and know what struggles it has had to go through and still goes through. However, as error alerts are often sporadic and numerous, I cannot address them all. Concrete errors, however, when placed side by side, add up, and even more so if we add to them those that readers already correct with IT tools and digital comments at the end of articles. The conclusion is that many errors are made, and that, as I have suggested at other times, they would require a final correction or post-correction of each journalistic piece before publication, which in the past times of linotypes was done by the “plate editor”, referring to the reading of the composition plates, one minute before entering the printing press and avoiding that the blunders were stamped for posterity in the unappealable newspaper archives. I refer interested readers to the chronicle that, at the end of last year, I titled “Sisyphus and the enigma of the plate editor”, where thanks to various readers and subscribers I reviewed a series of errors, and I had the experience and academia of Professor Gabriel Jaraba.I'll give some examples of recent errors that readers have pointed out to me. Robert Serra ironically asks me if in "summer and holiday times... there is less text correction?", and sends me a screenshot of page 23 of July 25, where we state: "The efficacy of antiviral transplants makes possible a transplant between two infected people". No less ironically, Andreu Suriol writes to me on July 26, after one of the most mythical stages of the Tour: "Good morning, my lord (and all the readers who annoy me). Could you agree on naming orographic accidents in a single way? It seems that each sports reporter climbs the mountain slopes of the Tour on a bicycle to their liking. I have seen Alpe d'Huez written almost always with this spelling, but in the same brief headline one could read Aup d'Huès and, oh horror, Aup d'Uès. Shall we clarify?" Dear Mr. Suriol, in the trust that we already share, readers never annoy me, quite the contrary, I thank them for their ideas, criticisms and suggestions. And yes, we will clarify: on the paper page, which is what will go down in history, the toponym that appears is the classic French one, Alpe d'Huez, while the one referred to is the Occitan one in two – not "two" – variants.I also note that Josep Bruguera has sent me several phone messages about his critical perception of the newspaper, and in one of them he points out an error not as a farmhouse but as a castle, also without sparing healthy irony: on page 6 of the Tourism dossier, also from July 26, in a photo caption, Lloret Castle is identified as if it were Tossa's and “not everywhere on the Costa Brava where there is a castle is Tossa. We do not deserve to make these mistakes.” All this, in a couple of days that yes, are in the heart of summer, the staff are on vacation and the immeasurable heat of climate change drags lethargy.The reading of the newspaper by the Reader's Advocate is necessarily meticulous, but a point is reached where the words themselves struggle to save themselves, in the style of Espriu, and it is as if they themselves denounced the embezzlement and highlighted them in the red color of traffic lights. We also see, in yellow, words or phrases that are not errors but could be improved, for example, the reiteration of certain discursive connectors, especially "in fact" and "as for"; I swear like Scarlett O'Hara on the stairs of Tara that I have counted four "in fact" in a single "M" size article, not very long. Catalan proofreaders do enough to correct mistakes, that they should also worry about reaching here, the issues where the journalist should resolve before submitting the piece. Journalism is a literary genre, but I fear that, between the rush of immediacy and the digitalization that gave birth to it – the news spreads in real time –, the beauty of the language that proclaims the art of the word will step aside.“A step aside” is a very repeated expression, and there are others that also contribute to settling the balance of aesthetics in bankruptcy proceedings negatively. Stretching semantics hyperbolically, we break seams at will, we fire more torpedoes at the waterline than German submarines in World War II, if metaphorical tsunamis were real, the world would have ended long ago according to the Apocalypse, we open more melons than old roadside vendors, we tear up cards when there are no longer any paper ones and it is materially impossible, there are no medium measures but rather smaller ones, we highlight iconic images, the same meaning according to etymologies from Latin and Greek, we value more than on Wall Street... And journalism, which is the main producer of language, reflects like the cyclopean thermometer of Portal de l’Àngel the high temperature of its impoverishment. Having enjoyed Nolan's cinematic Odyssey has made me reread Carles Riba's Catalan verse translation (1948) and, alongside the exultation of verifying the richness of our language, the sadness for the vocabulary and syntax we are losing floated. The philologist Jordi Badia, in a tweet, mentioned expressions that his 18-year-old son, upon reading it, kept asking him what they meant: “cisellat”, “engrunar”, “encamellar-se”, “tudar”, “a cremadent”...The critical eye I have on my journalistic grievance memorial business does not deny the high definition of Nolan's IMAX camera and I emphasize, consequently, that in the total balance of what we publish, the margin of error is what all statistical morals admit. And thanks to the interactive contributions of subscribers and readers, we must temper them. In these 60 pages, I have given voice to 128 readers and, in this time, I have been able to personally attend to 203, although I have read the 407 messages I have received, by email or WhatsApp, as I have listened to the numerous phone calls. I thank them from here for their contributions that help us to constantly rethink the newspaper and each person's journalistic practice. By defending the readers, together we are defending ARA, because, in an increasingly interactive dynamic, with the unidirectionality of communication that preceded us democratically broken, it is clear that what is written contributes, but also contributes, and in what a way, those who read and convey their critical sense to us.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 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 DNI number is required.

Every day I receive, on average, 370 notifications on my mobile and 110 are from media outlets. If I didn't always have my mobile on silent, every four minutes a loud ding would sound and disturb my colleagues. Yes, I am a journalist and being informed is my obligation. But mine is not such an exceptional situation: more or less everyone receives more than a hundred alerts a day — and that's why it's now good manners to have the phone's sound deactivated.

Social networks, alerts, digital newspapers, but also paper editions, televisions, and radios. Currently, information can arrive through many channels and practically non-stop. Although being informed is essential for participating in democracy, in recent years it has been detected that excessive news consumption can take its toll. Psychologists call it information fatigue. ReachLink, a platform dedicated to mental health support, defines it as "a state of cognitive and emotional exhaustion that develops when exposed to the media continuously over time. It's not just about feeling tired of hearing bad news. It's a specific psychological response to the incessant flow of information that characterizes modern media consumption. You may experience it as a feeling of anxiety, numbness, or simply being unable to process one more headline."

Reader Albert Martín Ballesta sent me an email that raises the issue of the journalistic treatment of immigration, delicate in essence and even more so when it is linked to crime and at a moment of extremely serious tension in Ceuta and Melilla. I reproduce the part that gets to the heart of the matter and thank him for such a well-reasoned proposal for reflection.“I am making this comment following the news from ARA that a minor has been shot dead in a park in Barcelona. I see that habitually, when crimes, homicides, etc. are discussed, the nationality of the victim or the aggressors is not reported. I understand the argument often given of not wanting to stigmatize the possible condition of being a foreigner/immigrant (we are all people) and not wanting to give arguments to xenophobes and the far-right, but:- I believe this criterion corresponds to a time when immigration did not represent the current population volume;- it is not a statistical sample, obviously, but I have observed in my environment, quite diverse and with different levels of education and a rather leftist mentality, that the first thought when faced with these facts is that they are foreigners (I myself admit that it is the first thing that comes to my mind before making the intellectual effort to relativize it), therefore:- if we do not state the origin and given the lack of this data, 100% of criminal acts are attributed by default to immigration (and this is sinking in);- if we state the origin, two things can happen. One, that the % of perpetrators and victims is more evenly distributed between nationals and immigrants. The other, that the % attributable to immigration is higher than what would correspond to its demographic weight, in which case we really have a problem as a society and we cannot hide our heads in the sand. Because, indeed, we are all people, but in the second hypothesis, cultural origin with its negative consequences (Latin gangs, for example), the breeding ground that the vulnerability of most of those who arrive represents, the population increase resulting from family reunification and biological reproduction itself, and the fact that it is doubtful that they will find the work that their parents do not find, etc., lead us to a situation of social conflict in crescendo which cannot be ignored by the media (because we are surprised later by how the far-right is rising). Thus, for example - he concludes - in one of the magnificent dossiers that ARA produces, as for the piece he dedicated to immigration and crime, if it was analyzed from an optical different from the newspaper's, it was easy to deduce that, the less percentage of foreigners, the fewer crimes of all kinds there would be. As a friend told me: it is very clear that the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals, but if 2 million have come, and only 1% are, the police have a problem and society even more".The deputy director, Ignasi Aragay, gives us the newspaper's version:“On the question of whether it is necessary to identify nationality, origin, or ethnicity when referring to people who have committed crimes, the newspaper's general criterion is not to do so to avoid stigmatizing groups. An exception is only made when it is considered relevant for the understanding of the news itself: for example, if it is about a "Latin" gang or a mafia group linked to a specific nationality or geographical area.In any case, it is a debate that we have open internally because, indeed, Catalan society is today much more diverse than a few decades ago and, therefore, the identification of this diversity increasingly provides more keys to explaining relevant collective phenomena, whether in the issue of citizen security (thefts and street violence) as in other relevant realities in the fields of education, housing, the labor market, sexual abuse, mental health, etc.At the same time, we are aware that, in the context of growing polarization, both identifying and not identifying origins and identities in news with a criminal background can be easily manipulated, misinterpreted, and distorted. This is why, increasingly, we analyze it on a case-by-case basis and pay attention to how we say it (or don't say it) and the relevance we give it (for example, whether or not we include it in the headline elements)".Faced with such a sensitive issue, the most honest way for journalism to address it is by strictly following deontological codes. The Deontological Code of Journalism in Catalonia and that of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE), updated in 2025 and 2026, respectively, determine not to mark origins, and both have elaborated annexes on the specific topic, in order to proscribe xenophobia. This aspect deserves, where appropriate, double attention, not only for the strict respect of human rights, but also to avoid playing into the hands of rising ultra-populisms that focus their discourse on curtailing the rights of immigrants.The codes, however, foresee informative exceptions with a generic origin designation, gangs or mafias defined by a locative to which both the reader and the deputy director refer; the expansion of the news about the death of the young man (July 4) that the reader cites suggests that it could be related to Latin gangs. The debate proposed by Albert Martín Ballesta, with extensive civic experience, must also be taken into account to avoid criminalizing immigration through elliptical semantics that lead to inferring that the anonymity of the origin is due to the fact that the offender is a foreigner. If we take the sadly current problem of domestic and gender violence, which is the one with the highest journalistic prevalence, we will see that, according to verified data from various statistical sources, the majority of aggressors or reported individuals are of Spanish nationality.We must contextualize that we are at a time of rethinking the definition of citizenship based on the exponential growth of immigration noted by the sender. We come from an integrating tradition — Campalans, Vicens, Candel … — which President Pujol institutionally collects and disseminates with conviction and strength, and which culminates in the theory of concentric identities promoted by President Maragall, based on the political articles of his grandfather Joan and Václav Havel. The Statute of 2006, which has an anthological preamble by Quim Nadal, where Catalonia is spoken of as a nation, opens — first sentence! — with a hymn to diversity: “Catalonia has been shaped over time by the contributions of energies from many generations, from many traditions and cultures, which have found a land of welcome here.” When immigration figures skyrocket, sociological research provides a constant re-evaluation at the intersection of integration and multiculturalism, and it is normal for origins to be mentioned in a natural, non-malicious way, as in the article of June 27 about the young promises of Barça, La Masia which can become the country by synecdoche, the “my house is your house if anyone has houses” of the great Jaume Sisa. I have verified that the editors of ARA have it very well understood and have demonstrated it extensively, with the piece on immigration and crime that cites Martín Ballesta, the rest of the 15 articles from the dossier of February 11, 2024 of immigration radiography and the numerous reports, opinion articles and other dossiers published on the matter.The Reader's Advocate takes note of the 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 WhatsApp number 653784787. In all cases, identification with name, surnames, and DNI number is required.

Throughout history, humanity has had only one system for asking and answering questions: other humans. When we wanted to know something, we asked the doctor, the teacher, or the neighbor who knew; we read the newspaper, which paid journalists to investigate; we consulted books, magazines or websites written by experts. This human question-and-answer system worked the way it worked: it was slow, imperfect, and unequal. But it had an architecture of incentives that, for better or worse, sustained the production of knowledge. Producers of information (newspapers, magazines, researchers, creators) invested time and resources in generating quality content.

The subscriber Teresa Maria Castanyer rightly pointed out that we made a mistake in a photo caption according to which the Holy Father was at mass, when in reality he was at the window of the apostolic palace from where he recites the Sunday angelus. But it turns out that, upon seeing the chronicle where I echoed it on the digital version, which is uploaded on the afternoon before the paper, there was a new error in the photo caption, again with Leo XIV as the victim of the secular sacrifice of journalism. The deputy director on duty, David Miró, fixed it and saved me the embarrassment of seeing that the practice I had identified as incorrect was reproduced in the pantheon of my page of June 14th.Miró, who carries a lot of journalistic experience in his professional backpack, told me the phrase that inspires my headline: “Photo captions are loaded by the devil”. If another pope, Paul VI, already warned that Satan's smoke had entered the Church, let's imagine the press, and what's more, in this case it enters to play tricks on its highest dignitary. But the curse continues and the same reader Castanyer alerts me again about a blunder in a photo caption: “Today, Thursday the 18th [of June], a photo caption in the paper edition, page 12, shows little rigor in whoever has to marry text and image. That it is not a press conference is obvious. And that it is not Évian can be suspected. And that it is Versailles can be deduced if it is known that yesterday the two presidents [Macron and Trump] were having dinner in Versailles. In short... aliquando dormitat Homerus". The quote from Horace means “from time to time, Homer sleeps”, that is, sometimes wisdom falters. I have received more criticism about the photo captions. Paola Jubert writes: “I am reading today's newspaper, Sunday [June 21 and following days], and on page 21 there is an article about an award received by Eurecat. I imagine the article is subsidized, but the signature says 'Editorial Staff'. The surprise, or indignation, is about the photo caption where the three men are identified by name and their position, and the female figure is belittled, as if she were a figurant. Who is she? What is she doing at the award ceremony? Does she not deserve to be mentioned?”. The subscriber Andreu Suriol, in an email ironically titled “Vision of the future”, points out that in a photo caption from July 5, the second day of the Tour, it read: “Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) in action with other cyclists during the 14th stage of the Tour 2026”. Suriol, citing AI, specifies that it was the 2025 stage that took place on the mountain in the photo. And it turns out that in the cover photo of that day, the Tour was where it really was: at the foot of the Sagrada Familia.To validate readers' perception of photo caption errors, the Defender also addresses the omission ex officio: on the digital front page, it is very common to have photos without captions, and when they are of unknown people, the reader has to enter the article to relate a face with a message so important that it is highlighted in the newspaper's letter of credence.I have forwarded the complaints to the head of Photography at the newspaper, Ferran Forné, who gives me his opinion:“The photography section does not affect the editing of captions in the print version, the permissions we have in the print newspaper's editing and layout program are limited only to graphic content. It is true that normally, when reviewing the content, if we detect an error, we inform the editor or the person in charge of closing the print edition or a proofreader."Regarding the absence of photo captions on the web homepage, it is an aesthetic decision made by the web designers to maintain a cleaner image and to maximize the digital space available for layout, especially on mobile device formats. Errors in photo captions affect us in the strictest journalistic sense, just like the rest of the professionals at ARA who strive to offer a rigorous product. But above all, we are very attentive to the correct assignment of the image, in order to maintain the authorship of the photographers or the agency and to be able to verify the source of information that we show the reader.”Finally, I have completed the view of the subject with the assessment of Teresa Ferré i Panisello, doctor in communication sciences and postgraduate in contemporary history. She is a professor at the UAB, has an abundant research curriculum on photojournalism, and has been curator of several exhibitions. She says:“The photograph-text binomial in journalism must be understood as an inseparable unit, since no informative medium can fulfill its objective solely through the image, due to its polysemic nature. The caption, if perfectly crafted, can answer five of the six questions of a news story (what, where, when, who, and why), but it does not communicate the how. Only when we have a photojournalistic piece in front of us, with a longer caption, is there room for the interpretation of facts and allows for a non-informative headline. And, obviously, any caption should never describe what is obvious and perceived by looking at the photograph."The reflection on the importance of the caption dates back a long time. Walter Benjamin, in the 1930s, said it would be the most important element of journalistic photography to prevent the reader from focusing solely on the aesthetic value and realizing the political and social value. Forty years later, Gisèle Freund analyzed how the meaning of a photograph can radically change depending on the caption that one newspaper or another decides to put on it, which shows that it is the main tool for ideological contextualization in the press".The Defender's conclusion, to avoid being seen as an exorcist, is to bend the devil civilly. The relationship between a writer and a photographer who do a chronicle, an interview, or a report together is obvious and can become intense depending on the topics or characters. This in situ interaction should be prolonged in the editing, to maintain the "inseparable unit" pointed out by Dr. Ferré. When the photos are from an agency, the Head of Photography is the one who could oversee this relationship, taking on the functions of the picture editor that the Americans invented, imported by César Lucas and Marisa Flórez at the dawn of El País and brought up to date by Carlos Pérez de Rozas and Pepe Baeza when La Vanguardia changed its design with Milton Glaser.Regarding the absence of photo captions on digital front pages, I believe – I have communicated this to the newspaper's management – that aesthetics or functionality should not prevail over information. The academy, which sets the pace for applied science, prescribes that in its indexed publications or papers each image must be accompanied by the source and an explanatory text. As a corollary, I advocate for paying attention to photo captions and not dismissing them routinely, given that they are the most read element after headlines, according to research from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a true benchmark of journalism. I thank Teresa Maria Castanyer, Paola Jubert, and Andreu Suriol for making us reflect on a text as unjustly undervalued as photo captions, but with a powerful semantics inversely proportional to its scarce syntax.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 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, surnames, and DNI number is required.

Whatever your age, you who are reading this article know that technology is moving faster than human capacity to adapt to a new perception of reality. We have become a kind of overwhelmed jugglers or tightrope walkers traversing a cable far above our heads. I don't know if we have always been surpassed by technology throughout history; I suspect so, but never with such great acceleration, on so many fronts at once, and with such extensive shared knowledge of the metamorphosis we are immersed in as a society.

On Friday evening, Pepa Bueno closed the Telediario with a dedication to her colleague and journalist Anna Bosch, a historic correspondent for public television. A jack-of-all-trades in the profession who, after thirty-six years, is retiring. As a farewell gift, a report signed by Carlos del Amor covered part of her career and, above all, encapsulated her personality when informing. The video began in a very apt way to highlight the correspondent's demeanor. It was archival footage of Anna Bosch in one of her international reports, where she described the violent clashes between police and demonstrators. Bosch was wearing a helmet and a full-face mask that covered her entire face, with an anti-gas filter to prevent contact with the irritant substances that were spreading through the square. Del Amor began by saying: “There is something that few have, which is to be recognizable even when it is impossible to recognize you”. It is impossible to better express Bosch's television personality: from the scene of the events, covering the space and moving her arms to point out to the viewer what to focus on. A perfect symbiosis with the environment that no agency note could replace. Her reports are television history.

In very few words, the headline must condense the meaning of a news item or an opinion, invite reading, and also sell a topic commercially and seek to resonate. It is not surprising that in verbal scarcity inversely proportional to the size of an article, excesses or defects widen as much as they are visualized with bold and colored font sizes. Titling is always a risk, but one must not play blackjack, as the headline borders on sensationalism to the north. Be that as it may, headlines are and will be a source of controversy whether one likes it or not, one never titles to everyone's liking, and the debate reaches the Defender's mailbox, who must echo it and strive to make it enriching.I select three emails related to the matter. Jaume Molsosa comments that «In Friday's April 24th edition, on page 42, there is the following title: "Lamine Yamal will not play with Barça again this season". If not with Barça, with which team should Lamine play? The writing is clearly aimed at attracting readers by generating a non-existent doubt in the reader. Again, I demand more seriousness and fewer clickbaits in the headlines, which should be less malicious». Lluís Felipe Lorenzo, who is a colleague and has already helped us in other cases to detect errors, “would like to warn of a possible spelling mistake in the headline by saying austíac instead of austríac”. Finally, Venanci Saborit points out: «After all the conflict over education, strategic for the future of Catalonia, was it necessary to announce the agreement in ARA with this headline? Have you lost your minds?: "Education and the majority unions reach an agreement for 50 euros more"».I have asked for the opinion of Dr. Josep M. Casasús, whom we are fortunate to have daily on our pages in the Abans d’ARA section. Casasús is an emeritus professor at the UPF, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Ombudsman, and he was also the reader's advocate for La Vanguardia, among many other professional and academic dedications that exalt our profession. This is his commentary:«Headlines in newspaper texts appeared in the mid-19th century. In primitive press, information was not titled. It was the journalism of transition towards modernity that incorporated headlines with the style of enunciative indexes. In cases like those consulted, aseptic phrases such as “The Lamine Yamal question”, “The Education conflict” would have then appeared, repeated every day as long as there was a case. It was 20th-century journalism that introduced the current explanatory titling. Titling in printed newspapers involves normative constraints: the economy of editorial space (not leaving blank spaces and not breaking a word at the end of a line) and extreme conciseness. This dictatorship of design forces a semanticization that can creak, especially when due to editing haste or carelessness, spelling errors or slips of subjectivity are committed. Digital journalism is now drifting towards regressive routines, typical of the 18th century. On social networks, there are no longer headlines. And in digital newspapers, accredited formulas of modern journalism such as the lead and the inverted pyramid, which facilitate and speed up reading, are declining. Perhaps titles will also decline...»I thank the readers Molsosa, Lorenzo and Saborit, and Josep M. Casasús, for making us think aloud about this journalistic essence that is the headline, and I consider colloquial the expression about whether we have lost our minds in matters where we should be profoundly abstemious. My thanks also to Valeri Serret, whose email reached me just as I was closing the section, but which I want to reflect because it is of great interest. It refers to a headline that, although explained under the umbrella of sponsored content, deserves another explanation from a professional point of view: “Catalan meets the expectations of the National Pact for Language”. From a journalistic point of view, it is therefore debatable, as the reader notes, that “the subject pronouncing this sentence should be the Government, and as it is presented, it seems like journalistic information”; even more so, I add, when the article is signed by “editorial staff”. I insist – I have stated this on other occasions – that we should avoid signing these sponsored pieces as “editorial staff”, to favor paragraph 7 of the Code of Ethics for Journalism in Catalonia, which states: “Formulas of promotion or advertising under the deliberate guise of journalistic information must be rejected”.Minimum text in a tweet, minimum anonymity of tweeters

The issue of teachers, which we have also touched upon above, has stirred and will continue to stir a lot of journalism given its transcendence and social, cultural, and political repercussions. It is a sensitive topic to which we must be sensitive from our practice. Mercè Anguera, a highly recognized writer and also a teacher, sends this email to the Ombudsman's mailbox, which I reproduce in full:“I am writing to you to lodge a complaint about a comment that appeared in the 'A les Xarxes' section this Sunday, May 31st, regarding the agreement between the Department of Education and the teachers' unions. The comment is by Magí Hildebrandt, and my complaint is not about the content, although, as a retired teacher, I find it misguided and offensive (it speaks of the real world as if school were not, of productivity, of prize, of the educational system as if it were the sole responsibility of teachers). In the same section, there are two tweets that express favorable opinions, I suppose with the idea of showing a significant range of ways of seeing the issue, and this is one of the merits of your newspaper.I complain because the tweeter Hildebrandt is defined only as a political scientist, and an important fact is omitted: he is, or has been, head of the list for the FNC in the demarcation of Lleida, which I think is relevant, and should be specified. If the section's criterion is not to mention the political affiliation of tweeters, surely a tweet from someone else expressing a similar opinion could be found.To put it simply, if I had known the tweet was from an far-right leader, I wouldn't have gotten angry: they are what they are, and what they write has the value and purposes that it has. But if I take it as the tweet of a professional, I think that a crude opinion dignifies itself. And it hurts more.For me, your newspaper is a reference, always –he concludes–. And I take this opportunity to thank you for how you address, and how you prioritize, topics related to childhood, upbringing, families, and school, the voices you have made us hear. From the beginning, you have marked a before and an after”.Deputy director David Miró explains the criteria of the A les Xarxes section: “In selecting tweets, we try to be plural about current events and anonymous people, and this means we cannot know who each person is or what their background or ideology is. In general, we avoid including politicians, who already have enough prominence on the newspaper's pages, and if we do, we specify it because we consider that tweet to have been news or to have generated debate. In the case mentioned, we were not aware of his militancy and we should have either looked for another profile with a similar opinion (to avoid confronting politicians with non-politicians) or we should have specified it. We take note of this”.The Defender's criterion reinforces the opinions of Mercè Anguera and David Miró. Precisely because the social networks section seeks to give voice to people who remain outside the media spotlight, we must strive to provide accurate information about their profile to guide the reader who naturally does not know them. Minimum text in a tweet, minimum anonymity for tweeters.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 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, surnames, and DNI number is required.

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Training journalists, scriptwriters, directors, public relations professionals, and, in short, communicators is one of the objectives of UVic-UCC. The Faculty of Business and Communication (FEC) at the Vic Campus offers three professionalized degrees in which students not only learn communication: they practice it from day one. Journalism, Audiovisual Communication, and Advertising and Public Relations constitute a complete offering in which future communicators are trained for a changing professional environment, putting into practice what they learn from the very beginning.

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Besides the religious and political factors, the Pope's trip has had a spectacular media impact, to be studied academically; this is the space of the Reader's Advocate. I have received two complaints on the matter. The subscriber Teresa Maria Castanyer, who identifies herself as a linguist and interested in liturgy, begins with this phrase: “I am sorry to observe that there are often errors in information about topics of the Catholic Church”. And she gives very clear examples. Writing “cupons” (coupons), placed in quotation marks, instead of “copons”, that is, confusing lottery tickets or shares with the “valuable metal vessel in the shape of a cup for keeping the consecrated hosts” (IEC). The sender states that the error was corrected in the digital version. She also expresses that, in a photo caption, we say that Leo XIV was at a mass when in reality he was at the Vatican window praying the angelus. Finally, in another photo, we make cardinals of prelates who were not, based on a misinterpretation of the solidi. “These kinds of things –concludes the subscriber– denote a certain carelessness, little interest in providing accurate information. And I am sorry, because if I notice more errors than I would like in topics that I know... How many errors must I not detect in other topics?”Teresa Maria Castanyer is right. Journalism must be able to translate technical languages and transmit them correctly to readers, it is an ancestral divulgatory function of the profession. Liturgy is a non-verbal language loaded with meanings –Romano Guardini explains it in The Spirit of the Liturgy (Pòrtic, 2011) – and, faced with a media challenge of such magnitude as the papal visit, the media could have been more careful with ritual vocabulary and its hermeneutics.Xavier Albertí draws my attention to an Aena advertisement “with language that I don’t find appropriate enough”; he quotes and comments: "«Spain, meeting point. Four stops, one single destination (Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, Tenerife)». The text, intentionally or not, refers us to the well-known slogan of the unity of destination in the universal» and, at the very least, has an evident integrating and integrationist tone. Could the newspaper have saved itself from publishing it?"The CEO, Pablo Casals, responds to the reader: “At L’ARA, we clearly distinguish between editorial content and advertising spaces, which are the responsibility of the advertisers, but these spaces always go through a prior filter on the type of advertiser, product, or service advertised. This means we do not accept any advertisement: we have red lines linked to legality, non-discrimination, the absence of hate speech, respect for fundamental rights, and coherence with basic coexistence values. In fact, on other occasions, we have rejected advertisements or asked for them to be modified when we have considered them inappropriate for our medium, for example in areas such as gambling, dating, or certain services linked to addictions or practices not well aligned with L’ARA’s values. In this specific case, we understand that the reader may view it critically or feel uncomfortable with it, but we did not consider that the advertisement crossed any of these red lines in a clear manner”.The Pope as a media phenomenon is so evident that from the outset he has achieved hegemony – with non-ecclesiastical license from Antonio Gramsci – in most of the media. A mass leader who mobilizes crowds, with different scripts, dramaturgy, sets, scenography, costumes, actors... Without two thousand years of history, this ceremonial superproduction would be unthinkable, which culminated in the masterful audiovisual demonstration of the Sagrada Família, due, among others, to the director Paulí Subirà, the artistic director Igor Cortadellas, the composer Daniel López Pradas and the maestro Josep Pons, one of our great orchestra conductors, first-class artistic contributions. That ARA has managed the topic appropriately is evidenced by the mere two reported complaints and very few critical comments in the direct coverage of the digital articles. I emphasize, therefore, that our journalistic treatment of the papal visit has been factually correct, without falling into either the hooliganism that Mònica Planas properly points out regarding television, or into contempt, and that the opinion articles have offered a diverse range of visions of a topic that has always given rise to much controversy, between the opposite poles of our most ingrained anti-clericalism and the no less ingrained fundamentalist moralism. João Borges, editor of the opinion section, has counted about thirty articles, starting with José María Brunet's first one, "The Pope's visit and the virus ship" (May 9th). An exact figure is not necessary because there are pieces of interpretative journalism that border on information and opinion, and three editorials have been included in the tally, and not the three articles on the encyclical Magnifica humanitas signed by Ferran Sáez Mateu, Sebastià Alzamora, and Peter Singer.I have missed, however, enough journalistic echo from the civil part, which would have been a countermeasure for those who may have become imbued with the truce to the non-confessionality of the State proclaimed by their own representatives according to their political interests, based on who knows what constitutional interpretation that can absolve – let's say it ad sensum– their actions. I mention civil arguments:– its performance. I mention civil arguments:Le Monde, 1963, or the closure of intellectuals and artists in 1970, against the death penalty. The Pope enters Barcelona through the cathedral, from where the demonstration of priests against torture in 1966, harshly repressed, emerges. The Pope goes to Sant Agustí, where in 1970 the Assembly of Catalonia is constituted, the main unitary body for the fight against the dictatorship and for political and national freedoms. And the Sagrada Família is called Gaudí, but a very important interpreter of it was the architect Jordi Bonet Armengol, who directed the works for almost thirty years and was also a builder of Catalanism of great substance.All this has fallen out of focus, although the Catalan issue, unfortunately, has resurfaced “the Catalan problemAll this has gone out of focus, although the Catalan issue, unfortunately, has resurfaced “Monsignor Antoni Maria Oriol, who was a professor at the Faculty of Theology of Catalonia, collected and commented on more than nine hundred texts from contemporary pontifical magisterium on the national issue (Albert Bonet Foundation, 2014). The volume emphasizes the cultural factor that is based on language and that the Church has taken into account at least since the Second Vatican Council, which allowed religious celebrations in vernacular languages, and that John Paul II, the most traveled pope, developed and defended over a million kilometers and the twelve languages he spoke: the theological concept of "inculturation", which is the interpretation of Christianity according to each culture. 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 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 DNI number is required.

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"The poor have understood many things", the Pope said in the Canary Islands on the same day that Space X went public and Elon Musk became the richest man in history. What we don't know is what the South African has learned humanly. Only the speed and vertigo of the changes we are going through explain that the confusion we are experiencing does not explode. In Spain, political confusion turns a pope into a moral reference in a Congress of Deputies poisoned by polarization, which applauds him unanimously for seven minutes. Each one ready to use him in their own way. It is the same confusion that turns Musk, a textbook unbalanced person with zero humanist capacity, into another reference of our times.

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The 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.

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These days of end-of-year evaluations, the media echo how teachers go to great lengths to find out if those passing the tests are students, robots, or "earpiece" prompters, the College of Journalists of Catalonia announces a short course on AI and on top of that it turns out that the Pope, who is daily news for his coming, dedicates his first encyclical to ethically reflect on the subject, which will clearly go much further. There is a generally reactionary conspiracy of opportunists against that have been in the world, as an Augustinian friar like the Pope, Fray Luis de León, who was imprisoned by the Inquisition, wrote.Newspapers are starting to have problems with AI embezzlement and we are established in the field of the invasion of advertising ultracores in digital publishing, of which we are not, however, actors but only containers. Jordi Urpí points out this criticism to us: "It is quite unpleasant, to say the least, to have to see in the middle of all the reports, ultra-Spanishist-smelling advertisements with the Spanish flag included and, obviously, in Spanish... Do you have any way to avoid it/us?... I will be very grateful if you manage it". Subscriber Amparo Asensi writes to me about an ad for “easy local girls” that appeared while she was reading an article: “I am writing to you because the other day, while browsing your pages, an ad appeared that I don't think is in line with your editorial policy or the readers' interests. Especially with all the cases of sexual abuse that you have uncovered and helped report. I don't know what control you have over the advertising shown on the newspaper's pages, but if you can do something about it, we will be doing our bit to achieve a just world for everyone.” The same vein is the comment that reader Glòria Casals shares with me: “Good evening, any plausible explanation as to why when I'm reading an article about the fight between Merz and Trump I find a photo of a Korean lady who seems to be offering her services?” Finally, Xavi Campreciós comments: “I don't know if you are aware of the ads that appear within the articles because perhaps different ones appear for each person. The fact is that the ones that appear to me seem inappropriate in the context of the ARA newspaper. Lately, they advertise dates with Asian girls. In a single article, they can appear up to five times throughout the reading, and the truth is that it is disturbing and unpleasant. I attach a screenshot of one of them.”I have requested the newspaper's version, which the general director, Pablo Casals, transmits to me:“In the specific case of the dating ad, it took us a little while to locate it because we didn't have enough references and, at first, we didn't see how it could have bypassed the filters. We've finally identified it: indeed, it had managed to evade both Google's filters and ours, and it has already been blocked. As we've explained on other occasions, this is programmatic advertising. When we don't sell all our advertising inventory directly, some spaces go into Google's auction, always subject to controls and exclusions according to our ethical and editorial criteria. Among other categories, we block dating ads, pornography, gambling, and content that doesn't fit the newspaper's line.Even so –concludes Casals–, it is true that this type of service constantly tries to find ways to enter advertising circuits, and that is why we continuously review and update the filters. In any case, we greatly appreciate readers sending us screenshots or specific references, as they help us locate and block these cases more quickly. Furthermore, programmatic ads from Google incorporate a small icon in one of the upper corners that allows you to stop seeing them and indicate the reason, which also helps to improve filtering”.I have requested an authorized opinion from the lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde, whose firm specializes in cybercrime and information technologies, although he is better known for his excellence in criminal law, especially from his defense of Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva in the Procés trial.“The issue is complex because it affects advertisements that, without necessarily being illegal in themselves, can be inappropriate or annoying for some users. This problem – explains Van den Eynde – is particularly intense in the digital environment, where advertising insertion often works through automated systems or is managed by third parties, which makes exhaustive prior control by the media difficult.From a legal point of view, the medium's responsibility essentially depends on the type of content disseminated, the degree of intervention in the selection or promotion of advertising, and the effective knowledge it has of its potential unlawfulness or harmful nature.The main limits are determined by the protection of prevailing rights and interests, such as the protection of children and adolescents, the prohibition of misleading advertising, the protection of human dignity, the prevention of hate speech, or the protection of intellectual property.However, current technological reality means that even on relevant social networks, inappropriate or fraudulent advertisements can be disseminated.Media outlets must have reasonable mechanisms for supervision, filtering, and response to incidents reported by users, as failure to do so can lead to legal liabilities. Effective knowledge of an irregularity can place the person responsible for the publication in a position of guarantee, especially if inaction contributes to the production or maintenance of a certain harm.In any case –concludes the lawyer–, it cannot be forgotten that a medium's advertising policy is also part of its corporate identity: the content it decides to host, promote or tolerate directly contributes to defining its reputation, public credibility, and the ethical standards with which it wishes to be perceived by its readers and by society”.I have tried to address this topic in the broadest possible way, but I am aware that this scope is so immense that we will always risk falling short, and that the media industry, journalists and advertisers, and readers!, will have to learn to live with a technological hegemony that often overwhelms us; if anything, like when we fought against the dictatorship, looking for zones of freedom that allow us to bypass the system. If Martin Baron, eight years director of the Washington Post to the system. If Martin Baron, eight years director of the The Reader's Ombudsman takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms, and complaints about the newspaper's content in its digital and print editions, and ensures that the treatment of information is in accordance with deontological codes.To contact the Reader's 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, surnames and ID number is required.

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In just over four years, artificial intelligence has managed to occupy a central place in our lives, but its current model threatens not only the sustainability of the media but also the foundations of democracy. This was argued on Monday night by A.G. Sulzberger, editor of the New York Times, during his intervention within the framework of the major annual meeting of Wan-Ifra, the main global press sector, which is being held this year in Marseille.

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The subscriber Antoni Soler Ricart sends me a very detailed email in which he shows his disgust and disagreement with the editorial of May 10, titled “Defence and technology: a Catalan bet”, as it represents “the official position of the newspaper”. The reader understands that in the Opinion section there may be articles for and against the defence and security industry, but adds: “I find it very difficult to understand why a newspaper like yours, which has always been characterized by its sensitivity against wars and militarism, by a progressive vision of international relations and by its independence, should express itself so enthusiastically on such a sensitive and controversial topic”. Immediately afterwards, Antoni Soler, former president of the Fundació per la Pau (FundiPau) with an accredited pacifist trajectory, develops at length and with criteria his position, emphasizing the gap between, for example, the resources allocated to the military industry and those allocated to healthcare or education, in a Catalan society that has excelled in the “no to war”.The deputy director, Ignasi Aragay, specifies that the editorial "was indeed focused exclusively from an economic and business point of view". He highlights the "strong roots of pacifism in Catalonia from the Spanish Civil War onwards", but already coming from a tradition and looking to the future from Europeanism which, "strengthened after the Second World War, has also been based on the idea of avoiding new wars on the continent". However, "the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the fact that the United States is renouncing its role in ensuring, via NATO, security in Europe in the face of Putin's threat, has changed the situation", and it is considered that "Europe's need to assume its own defense means, indeed, having to think about the military industry", not only from an economic point of view but also for geopolitical responsibility. Aragay concludes: "Defending Europe against the danger of Russian aggression is, in ideological terms, defending social-liberal democracy and consolidating this democratic space globally. The alternative is to be at the mercy of the military and economic power of a United States that is no longer a reliable partner or of a dictatorial China".The head of Opinion, Toni Güell, reviews the articles that have profusely defended pacifist positions: “In the newspaper, the dissemination of opinions from experts in the antimilitarist and/or anti-armament line is mainly distributed between the Debate and International sections. In Debate, opinion articles by Vicenç Fisas or Jordi Armadans stand out in this regard, as well as those by analysts who, like Carme Colomina, David Fernàndez or Natza Farré, have pointed out from different perspectives the cost that European rearmament could entail for the maintenance of the welfare state. For its part, International monitors the reports and positions of organizations such as the Delàs Centre, the ICIP (Catalan Institute for Peace) or the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). The newspaper also dedicated a dossier to the position of pacifism in current Europe and created an interactive on unarmed civil resistance to the war in Ukraine”. The final sentence of the complaint that Antoni Soler Ricart has handed to me has made me think a lot and a lot: “If they continue down this path, my conscience will oblige me to unsubscribe.” We talk about the habit of the conscience clause of professionals, but little or nothing about that of users, who nevertheless also have it: a patient can choose to change doctors and the reader of a newspaper can decide to stop reading it or subscribing to it. Defending the reader is, therefore, proclaiming this right. Another thing is that, by synecdoche in the customary tradition of misappropriation of generalizations, a specific and thematically circumscribed editorial can be considered the editorial line of ARA, and that the newspaper has actually published articles of the opposite sign, as Toni Güell demonstrates. Based on all this, I thank the subscriber for putting their rights in black and white and I ask them to renew their trust in us and help us keep the ethical ceiling high.Of you or of usted and a consideration about Saint George's dragon

Reader Fèlix Tarrida sends me a reflection on the treatment between journalists and interviewees. He says: “Yesterday Monday [May 4th] was published "an interview with Mrs. Vania Arana, founder of the Las Kellys union, where the journalist addressed her using 'tu' and not 'vostè'. Yesterday, in an interview with a water polo player, he was addressed using 'vostè'. I would say that the newspaper should always use the 'vostè' form of address. I can't imagine an interview with any politician, for example, being addressed using 'tu'. In the case of Las Kellys, furthermore, someone could see a certain lack of respect for who they are and the work they do. So, Mr. Batista, what are the newspaper's criteria regarding this matter?”Newspapers, in general, have maintained the vostè at least formally in their interviews, in the spirit of the distance that is also proclaimed when we invoke the third informative person. It is distance rather than respect, because tu does not necessarily imply a lack of respect, one would have to impute the connotations and context to endorse the negativity. The criterion of ARA that subscriber Tarrida asks me is flexible, it varies according to people, generations, situations, formality or relaxation. Without this ad hoc criterion, there would be informal address as forced as formal address, and sometimes the corset makes interviews conducted on a first-name basis, for example due to friendship between journalist and interviewee, be transcribed as formal address. for familiar, friendship, colleague proximities...; tu (you, informal) for family closeness, friendships, colleagues...; vostè(you, formal) for elegant distance and vós (you, plural formal) as an expression of respect for those who, by generation or custom, were not new to a form that can be considered archaic in our habitat of “viral” informal address. And from the words to the image, Xavier Abertí writes to me: “It’s not that I want to give it any importance, and I think it’s more due to convenience than centralism, but the fact is that, in the Sant Jordi special where a good bunch of dragon images were inserted, I think they were all from Barcelona. And we have more elsewhere. Just to name three close to home and that I think are very successful: one from Cassà de la Selva, under the balcony of the house of Can Trinxeria (today municipal); the other, contemporary, in Plaça de Catalunya in Figueres. The first is the work of Enric Clarassó and the other of Mercè Riba. And still a third, the mysterious dragon of Sant Feliu de Guíxols. And surely hundreds more would be found.”Albertí elegantly dismisses the topic, but from this platform his commentary is valuable for highlighting what other readers have also reproached us for: the prevalence in the newspaper of a Barcelonian perspective of Catalonia, the "city of Catalonia" – I refer to the studies by Oriol Nel·lo, who was precisely Secretary of Territorial Planning appointed by Pasqual Maragall–. Newspaper mastheads explain the world from their national viewpoint, but this must begin by well explaining all possible registers of their own inner reality, which sometimes involves a dispute against the metropolitan potential for news creation. Let us leave to Saint Eulalia and La Mercè the patronage of Barcelona and, given that Saint George is the patron saint of Catalonia, it would have been more appropriate to look for dragons in the biodiversity that remains outside the walls of The City of Wonders.The Reader's Advocate takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms, and complaints about the newspaper's content in its digital and print 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.

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This article is a tribute and expression of gratitude to our readers. A very diverse and qualified jury, convened by the Generalitat, has awarded the National Communication Award in the press category to the director of ARA. But this is an award for all of us who make the newspaper AND especially for our readers, who are our reason for being. Free citizens, interested in the world around them, involved in their society and their time, and who consider it worthwhile to support a media outlet in stormy times and pay for the information we publish. 

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"We don't give sermons, we don't give propaganda, we don't do activism, we are not the opposition of one or another. We are an independent organization dedicated to informing. This obliges us to explain the facts as they are, even when they are uncomfortable", said Esther Vera, director of ARA, this evening when she collected the National Communication Award for the press. The jury awarded the prize to Vera "for having contributed decisively to consolidating the newspaper ARA as one of the leading titles in the country". The awards ceremony took place at the Teatre Principal in Sabadell and was hosted by Laura Fa and Lorena Vázquez, who advocated for more women in positions of power and leadership, using Vera's case as an example.

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It is impossible to understand the loss of credibility of journalism and experts as a conflict between the rationality of an elite and the stupidity of the majority, an incomplete and sterile framework that only exacerbates the problem. Faced with the obviousness that the far-right distorts facts to create the narrative that best suits it politically, one cannot respond with the idea that the center, the left, journalism, or academia are representatives of a neutral reality without biases and that people who do not accept it are malevolent and/or stupid. The reality is that we can distinguish between truth and lies at the elementary level of facts, but in social and political matters there is always a necessarily partial view that implies value judgments and taking positions that permeate everything, from the wording of a headline to the order and weight that an expert gives to each element of their supposedly impartial explanation. The crisis of journalism must be understood from a much more paradoxical and counterintuitive perspective than the narrative of good versus bad.

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The subscriber Joan Talarn sends me a complaint about the conference Green energies: yes, but not in my town, co-organized by the newspaper and the IEC, and covered in a chronicle by Pol Casaponsa published last the 5th, the day I receive the reader's email, which I reproduce: “I thought it was a title to attract an audience and promote debate, because I couldn't believe that ARA would promote anti-renewables. To my surprise and that of some attendees, we found a table of retardist speakers who say “not like this”, but who don't know how to do the math to explain “how”. Luckily, some attendees expressed diverse opinions, because otherwise we would have been very disappointed. Please, have another talk with different points of view to correct this very biased talk”.I take note of the criticism and forward it to the management, which nevertheless specifies that “it is doubtful that the speakers invited by the newspaper should all be considered latecomers” and that the speaker Joan Nogué, a professor at the University of Girona, was simply advocating for a gradual approach: “One should start with urbanized areas, such as industrial estates, reservoirs, or roads”. The majority of comments addressed to me by readers follow this pattern, which, moreover, is the norm in the task of journalistic ombudsmen: a criticism and a request for correction or improvement, suggestions, a comparison with the corresponding section, and possibly an expert commentary from outside the newspaper. In the case of subscriber Talarn, the conventional dynamic is further refined because it appeals precisely to comparison, which is normative in all professional ethics. But I also detect a change in trend. In my two years as Reader's Advocate, I have received quite a few critical comments about the newspaper for having published certain articles. These complaints, added to the comments at the foot of the article, have been exponentially boosted around the publication of Elena García's article on Noelia Castillo's euthanasia. I dealt with this in my chronicle of April 12, titled "Euthanasia, journalism, tolerance". Following this piece, I have received criticism again, which now includes me for having defended its publication. Elena García's article on Noelia Castillo's euthanasia. I dealt with this in my chronicle of April 12, titled "Euthanasia, journalism, tolerance". Following this piece, I have received criticism again, which now includes me for having defended its publication. about the euthanasia of Noelia Castillo. I dealt with it in We live in a world where intolerance has gone viral; you only have to take a stroll through social media, to see day in and day out that society is becoming judgmental, the presumption of innocence has been reduced to ashes, politics lives in the courts and Parliaments in investigatory commissions and summary control sessions. Intolerance is neither created nor destroyed, it transforms, if you allow me to parody Einstein's reformulation of an old physical principle; religious sin has mutated into civil sin, and the spread of the far right urbi et orbi – as evident from last Sunday's ARA poll— is a breeding ground that favors and spreads it environmentally.In this extension, we find intolerances based on the usual reactionary principles – in the case of euthanasia, those vaunted by Abogados Cristianos – and in general the far-right, easily detectable; others that nevertheless express themselves from the progressive side, captured in the unwritten code of the politically correct; and, finally, the contradiction in terminis where defenders of progressive principles, on the other hand, invoke reactionary practices to limit the open expression of opposing positions. A social conquest, however advanced and legitimate it may be, must be open to criticism, and the medium that decides not to publish a criticism will have to resolve whether the non-publication is in accordance with the law or is censorship. Always following the maximalist guarantor principle in dubio pro reo, it is necessary to publish if the argumentative battery for non-publication presents doubts, and removing from the equation that the media have the right to choose whether or not to publish an article or even an advertisement, which is a commercial transaction, which they have not requested.Fortunately, however, the deployment of restrictions on freedom of expression in the journalistic field admits a protective umbrella which is the concept of veracity, which can prevail over other assumptions, and which is set out in Article 20 of the Constitution. Some of the drafters of the Constitution were very sensitive to this issue, because Francoism had eroded, persecuted, and repressed freedom of expression. Jordi Solé Tura, one of those "fathers of the Constitution", an excellent jurist expert in constitutional law, in addition to his knowledge, knew from personal experience what it was like to defy censorship from exile and the clandestinity of Radio Espanya Independent, the famous Radio Pirenaica. I am in this situation, I produced clandestine press very intensely, I dealt as best I could with the risks it entailed and, following Voltaire, Griffith, Todorov... I cherish the right to speak, even if I do not like it or detest it in substance or form. Being the Defender of the Reader a personal institution, I can conjugate this delicate subject in the first person, and I understand that the most honest way I have to exercise this function is by defending freedom of expression at its widest wavelength, even that of readers who will not agree with this article.Subscribers who wish to know my work live are invited next May 13, at half past four, in the Sala de les Sirenes of the Hotel Espanya on La Rambla. 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 DNI number is required.

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