Laura Zommer, Armando.info, and Patrícia Campos Receive Gabo Award for Excellence 2025

Laura Zommer (Argentina), the media outlet Armando.info (Venezuela), and Patrícia Campos Mello (Brazil) have been announced as the recipients of the Gabo Award for Excellence 2025 by the Gabo Foundation. They are recognised for their courage, rigour, and commitment to defending the truth in a regional and global context marked by misinformation, censorship, and attacks on the free press.

The Gabo Award Council, composed of 13 prominent figures in Ibero-American journalism, made the exceptional decision to award the prize to three recipients for the first time, in the year the Foundation celebrates its 30th anniversary. This honours three careers that "represent, from different fronts, the same battle: journalism that confronts lies, corruption, and the violence of organised crime and a new power that seeks to annihilate democracy and freedoms," as stated in the award's act.

The announcement was made on May 8 at Casa Gabo in Cartagena, Colombia, led by Mónica González, President of the Award Council, and Jaime Abello Banfi, General Director of the Gabo Foundation.

With this triple award, the Council highlights three expressions of excellence: Zommer, who has innovated in data verification with a continental vision; Armando.info, a media outlet that challenges authoritarianism with rigorous investigation from exile; and Campos Mello, who has exposed digital manipulation networks at the cost of her personal safety.

On its 30th anniversary, the Gabo Foundation reaffirms its purpose of supporting journalists and storytellers across Ibero-America to achieve a better-informed, participatory, and free society, activating the legacy of its founder, Gabriel García Márquez.

As the Council's act states, "the history of good journalism in our region is, to a large extent, the history of its resistance." This multiple recognition celebrates precisely that resistance: of those who innovate, collaborate, and take risks, convinced that rigorous journalism committed to the truth is not only possible but essential.

Laura Zommer, who led the media outlet Chequeado for 12 years, is a pioneer in information verification in Latin America. Under her leadership, Chequeado became not only the first specialised fact-checking media in the region but also an ethical and technological benchmark against misinformation.

Zommer has fostered collaboration networks like Latam Chequea—the world's largest verification network, present in over 20 countries—and has brought her experience to vulnerable Hispanic communities in the United States with Factchequeado. From there, she has promoted alliances with over 100 media outlets and developed tools like chatbots, bilingual guides, and educational content, with a clear purpose: ensuring language is not a barrier to accessing the truth. Her work demonstrates that verification is not just a journalistic technique but also a civic and inclusive practice.

With the same conviction to reveal the truth, the Venezuelan media Armando.info has made investigative journalism its stronghold. From Bogotá and other cities worldwide, it has persevered against repressive laws, financial suffocation, threats, and exile. According to the Award Council, it has become "a symbol of journalism that does not give up, that resists and continues investigating even when power turns it into an enemy to eliminate."

Officially founded in 2014—though with publications since 2010—Armando.info has uncovered some of the most emblematic corruption scandals of Nicolás Maduro's regime, including the opaque dealings of businessman Alex Saab, which led to the persecution and forced expulsion of several of its journalists. "Far from being silenced, Armando.info turned its exile into an even more powerful platform," states the Award Council. "Its journalists have continued publishing reports that have shaken governments, corporations, and criminal networks."

Under the editorial direction of Ewald Scharfenberg, Joseph Poliszuk, and Roberto Deniz, the media has consolidated a transnational newsroom, with reporters still working within Venezuela despite fear and censorship.

In Brazil, journalist Patrícia Campos Mello has waged an equally tenacious battle at the intersection of politics and technology. The special reporter and columnist for Folha de S. Paulo has confronted contemporary mechanisms of information manipulation with rigour and courage. Her investigations into the use of WhatsApp to influence the 2018 elections—recognised and replicated internationally—not only revealed systematic disinformation practices but also made her the target of a harassment campaign orchestrated from the entourage of then-President Jair Bolsonaro.

Campos Mello responded firmly: she denounced the attacks, took the cases to court, and achieved key judicial victories. The São Paulo Court of Justice condemned Bolsonaro for misogynistic attacks, in a decision that set a precedent on the responsibility of leaders regarding hate speech.

Her journalistic work embodies, as stated in the Council's act, "one of the main references in the region on the intersection between disinformation, attacks on democracy, and the role of big tech." "For the brilliance of understanding that disinformation is perhaps the greatest challenge of our time, for the courage to find ways to cover this phenomenon, Campos Mello's bravery reminds us that the cost of truth can be high, but the obligation to tell it will always be greater," concludes the act.

Laura Zommer, Armando.info, and Patrícia Campos Mello will receive the Award for Excellence at the Gabo Award 2025 ceremony, which will take place during the 13th edition of the Gabo Festival. The event will also be the stage for announcing the winners of the five award categories: Audio, Coverage, Photography, Image, and Text.

All of them will be part of the Gabo Festival programme, the largest gathering dedicated to journalism, citizenship, and culture in Ibero-America, to be held from July 25 to July 27, 2025, in Bogotá, Colombia.