Antonio Pampliega
Madrid, 1982
Antonio Pampliega is a journalist who’s covered conflict zones since 2008. In May 2015 he was awarded Spain’s Premio de la Buena Prensa (Good Press Award) for the best series of articles for his work in Aleppo for El Mundo, and the Juan Andrés García National Journalism Award for his article ‘Los niños perdidos de Alepo’ (The Lost Children of Aleppo). In 2017 he received the Artículo #31 Award for his short documentary ‘Cascos Blancos’ (White Helmets). He was also one of the world’s first professionals to enter Syria after the conflict began in 2011. Since then, he’s travelled to Syria twelve times, covering most of the country’s provinces and always seeking to reflect the suffering of the civilian population and the scars of war.
Bibliography
Novel
Cowboys en el infierno - 2025
Lucas Corso and El Guaje, two Spanish war correspondents, find themselves in Aleppo (Syria) covering the bloody battle for the city in 2012. Though still very young, they are already veterans of countless armed conflicts. Working as freelancers for various media outlets that exploit their commitment to truth and to the victims by paying them a pittance, they risk their lives in one of the most brutal wars of the 21st century. In the ancient Syrian city—both a sniper’s paradise and a civilian hell—these two journalists will be forced to confront the limits of their professional ideals, as the daily horror they witness begins to take its toll.
Biography / Memoirs
En la oscuridad - 2017
Ten months kidnapped by Al Qaeda in Syria
In mid-July 2015, three Spanish journalists cross the Turkish border into Syria. This is Antonio Pampliega’s twelfth trip to the area, and he has a feeling things aren’t going right this time. Suddenly, a van is blocking their way. Six armed men emerge from the van, shouting as they drag the Spaniards from their car. It soon becomes apparent that their contact in the area has betrayed them. Ten months pass before the three journalists are liberated. In nearly 300 days of captivity, Antonio Pampliega bears the brunt of the kidnappers’ cruelty. From October 2015 until his release on 7 May 2016, the Al Qaeda branch in Syria, believing him a spy, keeps Pampliega in isolation and subjects him to blows, threats and humiliations.
In this book, a Spanish journalist tells the first tale of a kidnapping in Syria. Unable to share the anguish of his situation with anyone, Antonio Pampliega spent those months trying to keep his hope alive by writing – and memorising – a diary in which he prays night and day that his colleagues are still alive, and that they will all someday be released.
Prizes
- 2017 - Premio Artículo #31 for the short documentary 'Cascos Blancos'
- 2015 - Premio de la Buena Prensa for his work in Alepo for El Mundo
- 2015 - Premio Nacional de periodismo Juan Andrés García for his article ‘Los niños perdidos de Alepo’