Hardly will there be another week like this, so marked by journalism as a calling, on Queen Letizia’s agenda. On March 4, the wife of King Felipe VI attended the lying-in-state chapel of Fernando Ónega to comfort Sonsoles, her friend and colleague. She then left precious words of recognition that testified to her unbreakable bond with her former profession: «He was the professional we all wanted to resemble».
Only eight days later, the queen Letizia had to appear again at a lying-in-state chapel, this time to mourn the death of Raúl del Pozo, patron of columnists with the permission of Manuel Vicent. Here there were no statements, but yes a general sense on X that Letizia herself had written the farewell tweet from the Royal Household to the veteran journalist.
«We bid farewell to Raúl del Pozo, a newspaper writer, journalist of the finest literature, a correspondent, a special envoy, a reporter always, who showed in his extraordinary column writing the precision that comes from calibrated readings and the gaze of someone who has traversed streets, shadows and the edge of all margins.
«Goes away the young reporter at heart who felt that he touched heaven with his hands by publishing on the front page, the best account of the noise of the street and who hung up the phone best. Another veteran, another craftsman of the word with six decades of work at the top and friends for life. For them, and for their family, our hug with affection«.
Queen Letizia, Author of the Royal Household’s Tweets?
The precision of the prose, the vocabulary, the meticulousness of the assertions… Indeed: it would not be surprising if Queen Letizia had written this text, which so closely recalls in her vocabulary and descriptions the style of her speeches. Let us say that, many times, these reveal their birth as texts written more to be read than to be recited, with long sentences and words that complicate diction. No one, in any case, can complain about the level of the Queen’s expression, so outstanding when compared with so many public manifestations.
In the closing of the Master in International Reporting, organized by RTVE and the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Queen Letizia wanted to once again speak about what was her profession, a calling that evidently continues to beat within her. Let us remember that the Queen had the opportunity to cover important events precisely from public television: the Prestige crisis in 2002, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001. Her speech is not to be missed:
Queen Letizia, during her speech at the University of Alcalá.
«I don’t know where I read that, perhaps, that artificial intelligence could replace us in many things. But the reporter who feels what others live, who is capable of grasping reality, who observes nonverbal language, who does not practice scorched-earth journalism with one testimony after another without meaning, who observes and analyzes what surrounds him in a calm manner, that reporter who has sensitivity, intelligence and discernment, with that reporter AI would have a hard time.»
«And, moreover, will artificial intelligence remember the day after, when the lights go out and the major events of the present fade? It is that time in which true reporters are forged and changes and transformations are pursued», stated the queen Letizia before about twenty recent graduates in a master’s program that enables them to work as correspondents and reporters.
«Dear third cohort of this master’s program, welcome to a profession that is disappearing», concluded the Queen. «This is said by Rosa María Calaf, I am not saying it. I think she says it with regard to the reflection and analysis of the good informant, read and trained. Welcome to a profession necessary and extremely valuable to explain what we are and how we are. The cynics, as you know, have no place in this trade».
