Podcast “Country of arsonists” that “no one gets off well” awarded in Spain

A digital magazine Divergent has been distinguished in the Environment category from these awards, awarded annually since 1983 to journalism works of the Ibero-American countries, in Spanish and Portuguese.

The “podcast” “Country of Burners”, according to the authors, traveled Portugal, “the country that burns the most in the European Union”, to try to understand “what leads a person to leave home and, without apparent explanation, set fire to everything around it”, stressing that “the main cause” of the fires in the country “is arsonism”.

“ We tell the story of a country that has abandoned much of its territory and population. And we make a portrait of where no one gets off well”, the authors say, in the presentation of the work.

The jury stressed today that the ‘podcast’ rigorously deepens the theme of fires, in a work of “constantly current”, with a script and execution “which holds” those who listen to it, after a journey by Portugal to try to make a picture of the figure of the pyromaniac and analyze structural causes of fires, the impact of climate change or mental health problems, alcoholism and revolt against the system.

In statements to Lusa today in Madrid, after receiving the award from the hands of the King of Spain, Sofia da Palma Rodrigues stressed the importance of a reward for the sustainability and projection of Divergente, a project “small and independent journalism and slow journalism”, which devotes “the time needed to listen to people” to tell the stories she wants.

With Divergent, works of international media were distinguished from the dimension and projection as the newspapers El Pais or The Washington Post.

The International Prizes King of Spain for Journalism are organized by the Spanish news agency EFE and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID).

The 43rd edition jury distinguished works in six categories and awarded the “Country of Burners” the Environmental Award, to which 60 papers were applied.

Another one distinguished this year was the Brazilian digital media “Aos Factos”, which won in the Ibero-American Media category.

It is a platform for checking facts and was distinguished by defending the truth in times of digital manipulation and has already managed to remove misleading publications from the TikTok social network and videos that sexualized teenagers from Meta platforms.

The International Prizes King of Spain of Journalism 2025/2026 distinguished four other works in the categories Narrative Journalism; International Cooperation and Humanitarian Action; Cultural and Photography.

The prize Narrative Journalism went to Cadena SER’s podcast “Asystole, the death from within”, coordinated by journalists Aimar Bretos and Victor Olazábal.

The investigation team from El Universal, Mexico, won in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Action with work on the drowning deaths of migrants trying to reach the US via the Bravo River, done in collaboration with the journalism platform Lighthouse Reports and the American newspaper The Washington Post.

In the category Culture, won the magazine Contracultura, from Honduras, which, highlighted the jury, made the leap to the role “in the times of the AI [Artificial Intelligence]” and with diversity of themes and artistic expressions.

The award in the Photography category went to Óscar Corral, for an image published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais captured in a locality of Valencia, Spain, during the floods of October 2024, where more than 230 people died.

The prizes – which have an allocation of EUR 10,000 per category – were delivered today by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, at a ceremony in Casa América, Madrid.