The journalist Rosa Maria Calaf, last Monday in Barcelona.massimiliano minocri
Rosa María Calaf (Barcelona, 78 years old) has put 183 pins on the map, which means she only has 13 countries left to visit in the world. It even invaded hermetic North Korea, which has no inhabitants but prisoners and could easily be counted as another planet. RTVE has just released a documentary about her, Intermediaria de Guardia, as part of the Imprescindibles series. “Víctor López, the director, has done an incredible job in restoring very old images. And in this country that loves posthumous honors so much, I am grateful to be able to tell you in life.” The veteran correspondent, who helped found the Catalan regional broadcaster TV3 and spent almost four decades at TVE, publicly left -legal broadcaster in 2009, but is not withdrawing from journalism. “It would be like withdrawing from life.” He now gives lectures at institutes and universities. “I feel like I should share everything I’ve learned with others.”
Questions. On his first trips he left the dictatorship for freedom. In the documentary he says that during the Franco era he learned a tool that would become one of his trademarks: irony.
Answer. Irony was a way of looking for loopholes to say what you wanted to say. This required complicity with the viewer, who knew the conditions under which one was working, who knew to read between the lines. It was the way to get past the censors. Now the opposite happens: the viewer believes he is very informed when what he sees is very entertaining, i.e. distracted. This complicity between journalists and citizens no longer exists because there are powerful forces that oppose critical and independent journalism.
Q What are these powers?
R. There have always been interests in journalism not fulfilling its function of telling what it doesn't want to know. But now they are much more effective at this work of distraction and manipulation. We feed more on emotional criteria than on knowledge. Repeating falsehoods is much cheaper than reasoned thought. The political class was swallowed up by the economy. Those who have to guarantee freedom of expression and the right to information not only do not stand up for it, but also put obstacles in the way because they have no interest in independent and critical journalism.
Q Before she became interested in journalism, she planned a diplomatic career and therefore studied law. You must have met many diplomats. As you talk about life in other countries, could you also see how the external view of Spain has changed?
On the attempted rape she suffered in Yugoslavia: “When I came back, I didn't tell anyone. There seemed to be a lack of respect for the local women and journalists who had to suffer every day.”
R. Yes. And it has changed tremendously for the better. Spain used to count for nothing, the image was folkloric, the country was unknown beyond the party and the siesta, although we always liked it. Over time it has gained a more relevant position, but still does not receive the attention it deserves. Many stereotypes and ignorance remain. There is much to do.
Q Journalism is a craft and can therefore be learned. What are the basic tools that have helped you the most?
R. One learns, like all professions, in the gerund by practicing it and having very clear parameters, knowing that it is a service to the community based on respect, the desire to spread and the defense of rights. People. The essential tools are accuracy, reflection, independence and training. And never forget that you are merely a mediator, a bridge and never a protagonist. Someone who brings together different or not so different realities and people. Believing that you are something else is extremely dangerous and harmful.
Q. There are a lot of confused people.
R. Yes, because we are creating a culture in which what impresses takes precedence over what is important, in which success is based on external beauty not inner beauty, on signs of material not moral wealth, and popularity as synonymous used for recognition. These currents of banality distort what journalistic work should be.
Rosa María Calaf in the Philippines records the report with which she said goodbye to TVE in 2009. l Miguel Torán (EFE)
Q When she first started on TV, she fought over a miniskirt. Why were miniskirts scary?
R. In 1970, in gray and repressive Spain, the miniskirt broke with the image of women spread by Francoism: submissive, invisible… On TVE there were opinions for and against. Luckily, José Joaquín Marroquí [realizador de radio y televisión] He decided to take on the challenge. I didn't walk my path alone. It was thanks to the efforts of many, many.
Q What other machismo episodes do you remember and how long did they last?
R. They still persist, but they are more subtle now. Then you found rejection. Sometimes she was an unbearable intruder, sometimes she was treated with condescension, patronization or surprise: “What is she doing here?” There was once a technical problem aboard a military plane dropping humanitarian aid over the Sahel, and the Belgian military said it was because they had left a woman on board. It was 1975. And many times I would go to a dinner for diplomats, businessmen… and they would tell me, “Oh, they didn't introduce us!” You're whose wife? This happened very often. It wasn't you, it was his wife.
Q Has this situation happened to you often outside or inside Spain?
R. Initially they spent most of their time in Spain and during this time they spent much less abroad. The difficulty of working as a woman depends on the democratic quality of the place where you work. But I had the enormous advantage of being able to move in the female environments of the most unforgiving, patriarchal, sexist countries, and that's where you really find out what's happening, because it's not the official version of what they want to tell you, it is Day by day, what you want to communicate to your audience. These women who let me enter their world are extraordinary and very brave because they risked their lives to do this.
Q You were also very brave. A few years ago she said in one of her reports that someone had tried to rape her in Yugoslavia. Then what did he do when he came back?
R. I didn't tell anyone at the time. Not even in my house. I found it very difficult to tell because it seemed disrespectful to the local women and journalists to whom this happened every day. In my case, he ultimately didn't succeed. Many years later, some colleagues convinced me to tell it to show that power is not sufficiently engaged to do safe journalism. Less each time. We have gone from being observers to being targets to be eliminated.
About the “trial” on TV3: “I experienced it with great pain.” It was a turbulence of opinions based not on facts but on the abyss of emotions, an incredibly dangerous mix.”
Q His first correspondent was in the United States, during the Reagan era and the beginning of what he calls the politics of spectacle. Has it gotten worse?
R. Yes. Many of today's trends emerged during this time. Trump is, in quotes, an improved version of this populist, reactionary, autocratic tendency. It diminishes institutions, attacks independent and critical journalism and disregards social solidarity. This is the program of these types of leaders and it is scary because although they are absolutely undemocratic, they come to power through the polls.
Q The News Council, which has been its home for so many years, published a few days ago a statement in which it expressed its rejection of the attitude of a TVE employee who flattered the President of the Government during the Goya Gala. She, Inés Hernand, explained that it was an exaggerated controversy and that her job was to entertain. What do you think?
R. I think it's really good that there was controversy, that it created resentment. The worst thing would be if information and entertainment continued to mix on the same level and people no longer noticed it. That's the big risk right now: that we think we're informed when we're really being entertained. I think there was actually a mix, and it's another example of how entertainment has seeped into information.
Q In the documentary he says: “I conceived TV-3, I saw it give birth, that's why it makes me so angry when it behaves badly and makes me so happy when it behaves well.” How did you Experienced process?
R. With great pain. It is just as legitimate to be an independent as it is not legitimate. The problem is the lack of respect for what others think. The misuse of information has hurt me in many cases because ethics and independence were forgotten, that is, the goal of journalism to give citizens all the basis for decision-making was not fulfilled. It was a turbulence of opinions based not on facts but on the depths of emotion, a tremendously dangerous mix.
If journalism cannot fulfill its function properly, we will achieve a semblance of democracy
Q Militant or fraudulent journalism, artificial intelligence, precarity… How would you rank all these threats to the profession on a risk scale and how do you think they should be combated?
R. Artificial intelligence is a tool that can be extremely positive for the ultimate goal of building a just society and, if used perversely, extremely negative. Precarious journalism is sick journalism and we must fight with all means against those who want to make it precarious, because in order for it to fulfill its service function it needs training, resources and of course independence. Without all of this there will be no free journalism. And if there is no free journalism, the foundations of democracy are shaken, because journalism is the sensitive nerve of every democratic society. If journalism cannot perform its function properly, we will end up with a semblance of democracy in which autocratic leaders elected at the ballot box can use many conveniences to destroy it from within.
Q He criticizes the fact that journalism reports on crises, but often not about what happened before or after. There is a surplus of historical days, an insatiable consumption of the present…
R. Yes. This is another distraction technique. Making people believe that the last thing is the most important is a fallacy and distracts from what is really important, which may have happened five days or five months ago. This is one of the big problems: specific events are reported, not processes. And what happens never happens, because yes, it comes from something. You have to ask yourself where it's coming from, where it's going and who it's going to benefit. All of these questions take time.
The journalist Rosa Maria Calaf, last Monday in Barcelona. Massimiliano Minocri
Q Of the hundreds of interviews you've conducted, which characters surprised you the most or were different than you expected?
R. These were almost never government-like personalities, but rather people who showed solidarity, defended human rights or fought for reconciliation and peace under the most difficult circumstances. And above all, the women I met around the world, pillars of the social construction of their communities. They are almost always seen as victims and not as protagonists.
Tonight we review the career of Rosa María Calaf, a reporter who defined an era. Today he is a reference for new generations of journalists. pic.twitter.com/h3G1q4DA4r
— TVE Essentials (@Impres_TVE) February 18, 2024
La Calaf, intermediaria deguard, directed by Víctor López, is a documentary film by El frac del Frame in co-production with RTVE and in collaboration with Deer Watson Films and Capital Radio. It can be seen on RTVE Play.
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