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Malia Politzer is the executive editor of piqd.com, and an award-winning long-form journalist based out of Spain. She specializes in reporting on migration, international development, human rights issues and investigative reporting.
Originally from California, she's lived in China, Spain, Mexico and India, and reported from various countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Her primary beats relate to immigration, economics and international development. She has published articles in Huffington Post Highline, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue India, Mint, Far Eastern Economic Review, Foreign Policy, Reason Magazine, and the Phoenix New Times. She is also a regular contributor to Devex.
Her Huffington Post Highline series, "The 21st Century Gold Rush" won awards from the National Association of Magazine Editors, Overseas Press Club, and American Society of Newspaper Editors. She's also won multiple awards for feature writing in India and the United States.
Her reporting has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Institute For Current World Affairs, and the Global Migration Grant.
Degrees include a BA from Hampshire College and MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where was a Stabile Fellow at the Center for Investigative Journalism.
The Crisis In Catalonia Has Demonstrated That The Iberian Stereotypes Persist In Foreign Media
As an American living in Spain, friends, family, and colleagues have begun to ask my opinions on the "Catalan issue". Or, more simply: What is going on in Catalonia?
In the Spanish newspaper El Pais, commentator Andrea Aguilar doesn't attempt to answer this question: Instead, she points out how so many foreign media outlets (particularly Anglo Saxon ones) are getting the issue wrong.
Part of the problem is the media coverage of Spain in general; because Spain is seldom in the international news, when it's thrust into the international spotlight coverage tends to draw on stereotypes and outdated versions of "Spain after Franco" rather than Spain as it currently stands.
Moving then from accurate coverage of Spain to that of Catalonia — an autonomous region with a great deal of independence — becomes even more difficult. She points out how much of foreign coverage has been at worst inaccurate and at best misleading. Starting with the widespread representation in the media that the referendum has been declared illegal "by the Spanish government", when in fact it was not legally binding even under Catalan law, which required a two-thirds vote in the Catalan regional chamber (instead the vote received a simple majority with 70 votes in favor, 10 against, and 55 members abstaining or boycotting the vote). Her critiques merely continue from there.
Unfortunately, she does not offer a solution to this misleading coverage. Nor does she point us in the direction of English-speaking publications that are covering the issue (in her opinion) well. But it's an interesting read on an issue that continues to make headlines, and an article that allows a more nuanced reading of current events with regards to Catalan independence.
very good piq, malia, thanks a lot!