Javier Ortiz

I don't have much time for blogging this week, but I was saddened yesterday to read about the death of Javier Ortiz. I'd become a dedicated reader of his daily column in Spain's youngest daily newspaper, Público, although I'm aware that before this paper began he had a full life as a writer, journalist and political activist. Amongst many other things, he managed to write his own obituary; which you can read here. He wrote with an admirable clarity and directness, with no fear of tackling issues from a position which placed him against the mainstream. In addition he proved that it's possible to survive the El Mundo experience without having your intelligence slowly sucked away. Whilst so many of the mediocre journalists live to be 100, it seems that those of the kind we really need don't survive so long.