The mythical informative space of Televisión Española Informe Semanal has received the 2023 National Television Award granted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The Jury unanimously wanted to recognize the program on its 50th anniversary "for being a benchmark in its genre and its international projection, highlighting the high quality of its content and professional teams, the introduction of new approaches and formats in journalism television, and the exposure of issues of general interest that have contributed to debate, social awareness and the defense of democratic values".
The National Television Award recognizes the meritorious work in the Spanish television field manifested through a work broadcast during 2022 or a private contribution for its creativity. With this Award, the Ministry recognizes television as an essential tool for the dissemination of culture, as well as its link with the development and dissemination of cultural industries.
Carmen Páez, general director of Cultural Industries, Intellectual Property and Cooperation has chaired the jury of this edition, which has had Carlo Penna, deputy general director of Promotion of Cultural Industries, as vice president. The members have been Alicia Vallina, advisory member of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA); Gonzalo de Pedro, advisor to the Cabinet of the Minister of Culture and Sports; María Casado, president of the Academy of Television and Audiovisual Arts and Sciences; Serio Oslé, CEO of Telefónica Spain, Emma de Alós, Director of Public Relations and Protocol at RTVE; Candelaria Delgado, appointed by the winner of the previous edition and Sonia Herrera, specialist in audiovisual media and research from a gender perspective.
Informe Semanal, the oldest program on Spanish television and the longest running of its kind on all European television, premiered on March 31, 1973 and every Saturday, for five decades, it has reviewed international, national, social and cultural with reflection, context, analysis and a careful realization.
Pedro Erquicia was commissioned to launch the program in just one month. He fixed on 60 minutes of the American chain CBS with the aim of reporting information from all areas, although at first, few national political issues were dealt with.
A program that was born with a vocation for public service and marked the agenda, especially during the time that TVE was the only television. Due to its persistence, its daring and its quality, it has accumulated more than a hundred awards and distinctions.
It has been a school for reporters and, almost from the beginning, the role of the director was introduced in the script to value the audiovisual image. And so, until today, almost 2,500 programs and thousands of reports later.
Over the course of five decades, dozens of presenters have appeared on the Informe Semanal screen, from José Antonio Silva, who was the first to lead the so-called Informative Weekly for a year, to the present day, making historical faces of journalists like Rosa María Mateo or Mari Carmen García Vela. Numerous faces are part of the history of Informe Semanal, such as, on her day, Queen Letizia, who began her career on TVE by presenting the program in the summer of 2000.
Carmen Sarmiento, the only woman in the initial team, approached the information from a gender perspective, circumventing censorship and opening the way for many other journalists who would follow her, such as Elena Martí, Rosa María Calaf and many more. Miguel De la Quadra-Salcedo, among others, before also embarking on a solo career with his own name, also contributed to building the legend of the program.
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