By Juan Varela
The tragedy of 3-11 was a great challenge for the Spanish media. That day, we were covering a difficult election campaign. Terrorism pushed all of us into the doom, the fear, and the blood.
Unfortunately, the press in Spain have a long history of seeing terror, and we have a commitment to inform about its casualties and consequences. We have suffered from its actions for more than 40 years, 25 of these with democracy and political freedom.
Our audiences have in their minds and eyes images of the corpses, the suffering of the victims, and the pain from the relatives and citizens in general. We never hide the facts. We always work with a lot of caution about terrorism, about victims, and about our audience. But we never hide the facts because people have to know what is happening, what are the causes and the consequences.
It is always very difficult to know what to do, whether you are accurately reporting the truth or whether you are falling into sensationalism.
When three trains exploded in Madrid, we thought about news in our papers and how to report it:
- How many people were killed and injured? Who? Where?
- Who is guilty?
- Why? What was the reason for the massacre?
- How about the government and politics? We were in the middle of an election campaign.
- How was the response of the emergency units?
- Give service to the citizens: a useful vision of the catastrophe.
Local papers of the Vocento Group tried to respond to the terrible situation with the most excellent and responsible journalism possible. Editors and journalists considered the news coverage, ethical approaches, the impact of pictures and headlines, extra editions, and whether or not to retire ads.
Ángel Arnedo, executive editor of El Correo from Bilbao, explains:
From the first moment, the effort in our newspaper went in three main directions:
- News about the mass murder with the core values of journalism.
- Analytical information of the facts, causes, and consequences with editorials ... and opinion articles from journalists and experts. As the leading paper in Basque Country, we have a lot of expertise in terrorism.
- To report the human dimension of the slaughter: the people who never are the protagonist in news. Two hundred little stories are the big story.
Rigor, accuracy, caution, responsibility, a great human and professional effort. From the other corner of the country, Juan Antonio Frías, executive editor of Sur from Málaga, speaks too about three key elements:
(First, we thought of) the victims. We wanted not to hide the massacre, but we knew about the sensibility of the readers. Second editorial idea was the citizen reaction, and third, the investigation.
A similar consciousness, a similar concern, and two different approaches.
Sur issued an extra edition the same day. At noon, readers found complete coverage with 20 pages and a front page with a big picture of a victim, but with a very careful treatment. Frías explains: "A young person injured, but alive. No death. We wanted to express hope and solidarity."
The day after, March 12, Sur published a front page without images, without casualties, without blood, but with a big symbol of grief: the black ribbons that people wore in the streets, in the demonstrations against the terrorist attack, in the cars, and in the building windows. The headline: "Spain in mourning."
El Correo did not publish an extra edition on March 11. The day after the paper chose a more informative approach: a double front page with the injured and dead. A news headline: "Massacre in Madrid," and an editorial, a very infrequent practice, with the banner: "Mass murder."
Neither paper published accusations against ETA; there were no certainties, a host of clues, and a lot of unresolved questions. The papers both prized rigor and accuracy. The reasoning of Ángel Arnedo about the coverage: "Always it is very difficult to choose images in these cases. Every decision (is always) very subjective. Personally, I think that in a terrible event like 3-11, (the) front page must not show a bloody image in search of a sudden impact. It is better to publish a picture with facts ... and to invite people to think ... carefully. That is, not a 'soft' picture, but (one for which) the true hardness of it is not in blood or in entrails."
Both papers, like the rest of the 11 local and regional papers of Vocento Group, published a lot of pages, a lot of news reports, articles, and pictures about the 3-11 massacre, but without sensationalism, with very careful consideration for the reader and his convictions, emotions, and sensibility, always looking for news, accuracy, and truth.
"The key," Arnedo concludes, "is the intimate commitment with the reader."
Juan Varela is an award-winning journalist and consultant who directs a training program for the Vocento Group. He has led approximately 100 consulting projects with media organizations throughout Europe and Latin America.
