Diario 16
Who did Pedro J. Ramírez work for from Jun 1980 to Mar 1989?
Pedro J . Ramírez Pedro José Ramírez Codina ( born 26 March 1952 ) , widely known as Pedro J . Ramírez , is a Spanish journalist . When he was appointed to manage Diario 16 at the age of 28 , he became Spains youngest editor of a national newspaper . In 1989 he founded the newspaper El Mundo , managing it continuously until 2014 , making him the longest-serving editor of any Spanish national newspaper . He has collaborated with several radio and television programmes and has published a dozen books . He was married ( until 2016 ) to the designer Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada , and they have two children born in 1987 and 1990 . He has a daughter from a previous marriage to Rocío Fernández Iglesias . Early life . Born on 26 March 1952 in Logroño , he was raised in a middle-class family and for 13 years he received his primary and secondary education at the Hermanos Maristas school in Logroño . He studied journalism at the University of Navarra , where he also began a degree in Law . While there , he directed the universitys Theatre Group , participating in several national and international festivals . He graduated with a degree in Journalism in 1973 with a thesis titled Towards Informative Theatre . Upon finishing his degree , he worked as a lecturer in Contemporary Spanish Literature at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania , living in the United States during the decisive year of the Watergate case . He interviewed the editor of The Washington Post , Ben Bradlee , for the magazine La Actualidad Española , along with other important figures at the time in US media . Lebanon Valley College presented him with an honorary degree in Humanities . Professional beginnings . From 1975 to 1980 he worked at the newspaper ABC , writing the Sunday section on political analysis called Crónica de la Semana . On 17 June 1980 , at 28 years old , he was appointed editor of the newspaper Diario 16 , then selling barely 15,000 copies and threatened with closure . However , within two years the newspaper had reached a circulation of 100,000 copies , and five years after that it would attain 150,000 , according to figures of the OJD , the Office of Circulation Verification . The most important event of the time was coverage of the attempted coup détat on 23 February 1981 . Diario 16 maintained a resolute editorial stance against those leading the coup . On 23 February 1982 , on the first anniversary of the coup attempt , Pedro J . Ramírez was expelled from the Court of Justice where the trial was held against those involved , as supporters of the coup refused to appear in court as long as the editor of Diario 16 was present . The Military Justice Supreme Council revoked his credentials and forced him to leave the courtroom . This incident led to a historic resolution issued by the Constitutional Court , dismissing the decision by the Military Justice and proclaiming readers rights to information for the first time since the establishment of democracy . In 1986 he was named publications director for the newspapers parent company , Grupo 16 . He was elected president of the Spanish Committee of the International Press Institute ( IPI ) , and in September 1988 joined the organisations global Executive Committee . On 8 March 1989 he was dismissed as director of Diario 16 because of disagreements with the editor of the newspaper about the allegedly sensationalist tone of reports concerning the GAL ( Anti-terrorist Liberation Groups ) . During this period , Ramírez was sued several times for libel , the most serious of these being when he was found guilty on 4 October 1993 by the Supreme Court of Spain and disqualified from the exercise of journalism . This sentence was appealed , and the appeal denied and the first sentence confirmed by the Constitutional Court of Spain on 14 October 1998 . Editor of El Mundo . On 23 October 1989 , seven months after his dismissal , he founded the newspaper El Mundo , along with three high-ranking executives from Grupo 16 : Alfonso de Salas , Balbino Fraga and Juan González . More than 50 Diario 16 journalists quit their jobs and joined the project . The parent group of the British newspaper The Guardian was one of its first shareholders , and the Italian daily Corriere della Sera invested a year later . In the 1990s , El Mundo stood out for its investigations on corruption scandals carried out by successive socialist governments , and particularly for its exclusive exposure of the socialist governments implication in the GAL plot that led to the murder of more than two dozen Basque activists , mainly in the south of France . These revelations led to trials and convictions , including those of the former Interior Minister José Barrionuevo and his associate Rafael Vera , for the kidnapping of Segundo Marey ; those of General Galindo and the civil governor of Guipuzcoa , Julen Elgorriaga , for the murder of Lasa and Zabala , and that of Rafael Vera himself for illegal appropriation of funds belonging to the Ministry . In 1997 , Pedro J . Ramírez was appointed president of the Commission for Freedom of Expression of the World Association of Newspapers ( WAN ) , and for many years travelled to countries including China , Algeria , Turkey and Venezuela to request the freedom of imprisoned journalists and the repeal of oppressive laws against the media . El Mundo supported the Aznar government in general terms during its first term ( 1996-2000 ) , but was somewhat critical when during its second term when it decided to support the Bush policy in Iraq . On the eve of the Azores summit , Pedro J . Ramírez published one of his routine Sunday letters , titled One Hundred Reasons against the Invasion of Iraq . After Zapateros rise to power , El Mundo pushed forward with the investigation of the March 11 massacre , presenting what the newspaper deemed significant flaws in the official version , but with a less rigorous investigation policy than their former exclusives during the 1990s . From the editorial perspective , it has opposed negotiations with ETA and the new Catalan Statute , which led to votes cast for the Partido Popular and the small party headed by Rosa Díez during the general elections held on 9 March 2008 . The Office of Circulation Verification ( OJD ) confirmed that during its first year El Mundo obtained a circulation of more than 100,000 copies , while in 2007 it surpassed the mark of 335,000 . According to the General Study on Media ( EGM ) , El Mundo has more than 1,300,000 readers . All of these indicators consolidate it as the second-largest national newspaper , behind El País . According to the OJD , at the end of 2007 elmundo.es had more than 11 million individual users per month . Based on the Alexa rankings , it was the world leader for electronic information in Spanish . In 2013 it became evident that the Rajoy government was not happy about some of the content of El Mundo , for example , the publication of text messages from Rajoy to Luis Barcenas . Ramirez blamed government pressure for his being replaced as editor in 2014 , although there may have been other factors given the decline in the papers finances since 2007 . After being ousted as editor he contributed a series of Sunday letters to the newspaper for a few months , before turning his attention to setting up a news website El Español , which went online in 2015 . Sex video scandal . In October 1997 a covertly filmed sex video was circulated which involved Ramírez and a woman , Exuperancia Rapú Muebake . Following a criminal investigation , the Madrid Court convicted the former personal aide of Felipe González at the Moncloa , Ángel Patón , the former civil governor of Guipúzcoa , José Ramón Goñi Tirapu , and four others , of violation of the right to privacy , sentencing them from two to four years in prison . The sentence , upheld by the Supreme Court , established that the purpose of the entrapment had been to change the editorial stance of El Mundo . His wife , Agatha Ruiz de la Prada , never did mention this matter in public . The purchase of Recoletos . In 2007 , Unedisa , the publishing company of El Mundo -already widely controlled by the RCS group , owner of Corriere della Sera- acquired 100% of the shares in Grupo Recoletos , a leader in specialised press in Spain . As a result of this operation , Pedro J . Ramírez , as General Editorial Director , was put in charge of content published in newspapers such as Marca , Expansión and Diario Médico ; magazines including Telva and Actualidad Económica , and the television channel Televisión Digital Veo TV . Until 2014 he shared these responsibilities along with those of Editor of El Mundo . Awards . - 1981 . Golden Oscar of Communication for Best Information Contributor - 1983 . Journalist of the Year ( Roundtable discussions for Mundo Abierto radio ) - 1983 . Premio Libertad ( Freedom Award ) as Editor of Diario 16 ( Club Liberal 1812 ) - 1984 . Liderman Award for Best Newspaper Editor - 1991 . Víctor de la Serna Award for Best Journalistic Effort ( Madrid Press Association ) - 1992 . Mariano José de Larra Award ( Roundtable discussions for Mundo Abierto ) - 1995 . Premio Libertad de Expresión ( Freedom of Speech Award ) ( León Felipe Foundation ) - 2006 . Montaigne Award ( Tübingen University , Germany ) - 2006 . Fape Award ( Federation of Press Associations ) - 2007 . Isaiah Berlin International Award ( Santa Margherita Ligure , Italy ) - 2013 . First Amendment Award given by the Eisenhower Fellows , Spain . Publications . - How the Elections Were Won . ( 1977 ) Editorial Planeta e - Press and Freedom . ( 1980 ) - The Complete King . ( 1981 ) ( in collaboration with the journalists , Pilar Cernuda , José Oneto and Ramón Pí ) , and - The Year Franco Died . ( 1985 ) - The Rose and its Thorn : Both Sides of Felipism . ( 1989 ) - The World in My Hands . ( 1991 ) - Spain without a Project : The Felipista Decade . ( 1993 ) - David against Goliath : Felipism Checkmated . ( 1995 ) - Bitter Victory : The Hidden Story behind Aznar’s Historic Victory over González. ( 2000 ) and - Getting Even : The Aznar Years ( 1996-2000 ) . - My 100 Best Letters from the Editor : 25 Years in the Life of Spain ( 1980-2005 ) . External links . - Biography of Pedro J . Ramirez at Freelance Spain