Foundación Mediterráneo, in collaboration with INFORMATION, will inaugurate the event series Conflicts on the Ground. The opening talk will be led by renowned journalist Javier Espinosa and takes place on Tuesday, October 25 at 20:00 at the Alicante headquarters of Fundación Mediterráneo, located at Avda. Doctor Gadea, 1. Admission is free.
The new cycle will feature esteemed war reporters who will share firsthand experiences and insights from a career spent documenting conflicts and geopolitical shifts. The lineup for the inaugural edition includes Javier Espinosa on October 25, Óscar Mijallo on November 15, and Rosa María Calaf on December 14.
Javier Espinosa Robles, born in Malaga in 1964, is among Spain’s most internationally recognized journalists. His career spans decades and includes extensive reporting in numerous regions. He served as a correspondent in South Africa in 1994 and covered Latin America from Mexico between 1995 and 1999. Espinosa later reported across Africa from 1999 to 2002 and in the Middle East and beyond from 2002 to 2014. He has focused on major global conflicts across four continents and has chronicled pivotal moments from the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars to the Sri Lankan civil war and upheavals in Haiti, the Middle East, and Africa. His work in recent years has included assignments as the Asian correspondent for El Mundo since 2014 and coverage of armed conflicts around the world since the early 1990s, including experiences from the Gulf War to ongoing regional turmoil.
Throughout his career, Espinosa has faced danger and captivity while reporting from conflict zones. He has documented the brutal realities of war, including periods of captivity, abductions, and risk-filled assignments that shed light on the human costs of conflict. His reporting has earned him numerous recognitions for journalism conducted under perilous circumstances.
Awarded honors include the King of Spain International Journalism Award, Cirilo Rodríguez Prize, Manuel Leguineche Prize, Miguel Gil Moreno Prize, the Bayeux War Correspondents Award, and multiple distinctions from France and the United Kingdom. He has also been recognized by the British charity Action on Armed Violence for his influence in covering conflict zones. These recognitions underscore his influence and authority in war reporting on a global stage.
Espinosa’s body of work covers protest movements that helped shape history, international summits, high-profile terrorist incidents, world-shaking events, natural disasters, and social reportage during peacetime. He is the author of books including Syria, Land of Broken Souls (2016) and Seed of Hate: From Revolution to Caliphate to ISIS (2017), co-authored with Mónica G. Prieto. These works contribute to a deeper understanding of the forces driving regional and global conflicts and the human stories behind the headlines.
The open session of the Conflicts on the Ground cycle, featuring Javier Espinosa as the event host, is scheduled for Tuesday, October 25 at 20:00 at Fundación Mediterráneo Alicante, Avda. Doctor Gadea, 1. Entry remains free, but space is limited. This series aims to illuminate ground realities of conflicts and geopolitics through firsthand accounts from seasoned reporters, offering audiences a direct line to the front lines of history.