Foreign correspondents in Catalonia unite to create a new International Press Centre

Barcelona (ACN).- A group of foreign correspondents based in Catalonia has come together to create a professional association, and aim to have a new International Press Centre in the Catalan capital. They have created the Foreign Correspondents Association of Catalonia, ‘Associació de Corresponsals Estrangers de Catalunya’ (ACEC) in Catalan. They hope to solve an existing professional need, and replace the previous International Press Centre of Barcelona, which shut down earlier this year due to a lack of funding. “There are many foreign correspondents in Catalonia and we offer a daily image [of Catalonia] to the rest of the world; we want to be taken into account”, the secretary general of the association Joana Viusà told CNA. For the moment there are some ten professionals, but they expect to bring together around 70 correspondents that work in Barcelona. In Spain, most of the foreign correspondents work from Madrid, and few media have correspondents in Barcelona or accept that they work from the Catalan capital.

ACEC is chaired by the France Press news agency correspondent, Marcelo Aparicio. The association counts with the support of journalists from several media such as ‘L’Indépendent du Midi’, ‘Europe 1’, Luxemburg Radio, and other media from Germany, Morocco and the United States. The ACEC’s secretary general, Joana Viusà, who is a correspondent for ‘L’Indépendent du Midi’ from the South of France, explained that the association aims to create a new International Press Centre. However, she has asked for the support of public administrations in order for it to succeed. Currently they are negotiating to set the organisation up in the former Sant Pau Hospital, a complex of Art Nouveau pavilions in Barcelona’s Eixample that are being renovated to host international organisations.

The former International Press Centre of Barcelona

The International Press Centre of Barcelona (CIPB) was a 550 square metre space within the Professional Journalists Association of Catalonia, in central Barcelona. It was created to host international media coming for Barcelona’s Olympics in 1992. The centre was managed by a foundation, sponsored by the Catalan Government, Barcelona City Council, the Spanish Government, Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Journalists Association of Catalonia. After almost 20 years, the centre closed at the beginning of 2011 because of a lack of funding.