The photographer of the Spanish news agency EFE, Jorge Zapata, has won the Andalusia Journalism Award, promoted by the Junta de Andalucía, and destined to distinguish the journalistic works that have best contributed to reflect the Andalusian reality through the diffusion of the cultural, social and economic aspects and values of this Autonomous Community.

Zapata (Jerez de la Frontera, 1975) has won the award in the category of photojournalism, for an image taken last October in the Guadalhorce reservoir in Malaga, at historic low levels. Jorge has been working at Agencia EFE for nineteen years, the last fourteen in EFEs office in Málaga (south of Spain). Previously he had worked at the Diario de Cádiz and Cádiz Información and collaborated with media such as El País, El Correo de Andalucía, Interviú or Diario 16.

For his part, Panamanian photojournalist Bienvenido Velasco has just received the Lorenzo Natali special prize, awarded by the European Commission (EC) in Brussels, thanks to an image of a Haitian migrant girl in the Darien jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia.

Velasco acknowledges feeling “very proud, fortunate and grateful for this award to the group of organizers and judges”.

The Lorenzo Natali Awards have been presented since 1992 and recognize “the extraordinary contribution of editors and journalists from around the world to the profession, who have demonstrated a continued commitment to the core values of journalism and to addressing crucial issues such as the human impact of inequality, poverty and climate change, as well as the importance of education and the value of human rights in our society,” according to the EC.