Orwell Day 2025

These are righteous times. Look at social media feeds, podiums, and presidential armchairs the world over, and it becomes clear that the performance of righteousness has become bigger, bolder, more dangerous, and no less beguiling. As a tool for moral mobilisation, righteousness is nothing new. To win the public, one must replace political intent with moral propaganda. Hence, the grand banners, the fighting words. “Take back the border.” “Make the country great again.” “Destroy the criminals.” “Protect the children.” The applause costs us little, but it acquires the force of state power to devastating effect. It is this interplay between public and private politics that preoccupied Orwell. We nurse, he wrote, “a secret belief that one’s personal opinions, unlike the weekly budget, will not have to be tested against solid reality.”

“Who then is the righteous one?” asked Tom Junod, in his critique of US detention techniques during the War on Terror. That is the right question.

Sally Hayden, an award-winning journalist specialising in migration, conflict, and humanitarian crises, has reported across the North of Africa and the Middle East. She is currently in Beirut as a correspondent for The Irish Times. Óscar Martínez is one of the most prominent journalists in Central America and founder of elfaro.net. He is currently reporting on the violence and corruption of the Nayib Bukele government. On the occasion of Orwell Day 2025, Filipino journalist and current CCCB Resident Patricia Evangelista invites them to discuss with her the challenges and duties of investigative journalism when faced with authoritarian practices and discourse dressed up as justice.

As on previous occasions, we also offer the classic Routes through Orwell's Barcelona and, this year, a dialogue-concert with Maribel Cruzado and Miquel Berga on the figure of Langston Hughes, chronicler of the Spanish Civil War. This latter event will take place at the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona.