Indro Montanelli and Julián Marías Aguilera Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 1996

The members of the Jury for the 1996 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities, Mr. Carlos Luis Álvarez, Ms. Adela Cortina, Mr. José Manuel Diego Carcedo, Mr. Ricardo Díez Hochleitner, Mr. Rodrigo Fernández Carvajal, Mr. Emilio Lamo de Espinosa, Mr. José María Martín Patino, Mr. Hans Meinke, Mr. Nicolás Sánchez Albornoz, Mr. Ricardo Senabre, Mr. Jesús de la Serna, Mr. Alfonso Sobrado Palomares, gathered in Oviedo under the presidency of Mr. Domingo García-Sabell and with Mr. Javier Gómez Cuesta acting as secretary, have agreed to jointly grant the 1996 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities to Mr. Julián Marías Aguilera and to Mr. Indro Montanelli.

The Jury has appreciated in Mr. Julián Marías Aguilera his bright and extensive intellectual development which stretches over more than half a century and counts with a broad cultural and academic influence in several countries. His literary work and his contributions to present-day thinking have made him one of the most outstanding figures of Latin American intellectuality of this century. To the clarity and meticulousness of his books and essays, we must also add extensive journalistic work in research and publication, carried out day after day in many domestic and international media.

Mr. Indro Montanelli has been and is, for the professionals of communication all over the world, an example and a permanent reflection of professional ethics, the independence of criteria, the defense of freedom and service to democratic cohabitance through communication. Added to his extraordinary journalistic biography and his effort to defend plurality in the media - which has led him to found various publications- is his extensive work in the popularization of historic information, characterised by meticulousness and originality.

Oviedo, 3rd May 1996