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29 Sep, 2025 @ 12:16
4 mins read

Olive Press Round-Up: The biggest stories in Spain

by

From The Olive Press Editor/Publisher Jon Clarke

Dear Readers, 

WELL, well, well. I wasn’t expecting to begin my inaugural weekly mailout telling you about an award.

But it would seem overly modest not to mention our win at the annual Diputacion de Malaga Joan Hunt awards last week.

Voted Best English newspaper in Spain feels like a fair culmination of 19 years of hard work keeping you, our dear readers, informed on what you need to know around Spain.

BIG WIN: Olive Press awarded as Best English newspaper in Spain at key awards ceremony

THE Olive Press has been described as the ‘best English newspaper in Spain ‘for its honest, incisive reporting and professionality’. It came as the newspaper won a key communication award…

It was a fun night and we got all dressed up for the gala in Malaga (the first time I’ve worn a suit down here for nearly two years, although I did bin the tie)… and I was delighted to get up and be able to thank my hard-working talented team, including News Editor Dilip Kuner and Digital Editor Walter Finch, who keep the engine room stoked up throughout the week.

Of course there are so many more people to thank, including our ex-BBC stalwart Alex Trelinski, who runs our Valencia bureau and freelancers such as Ben Pawlowski (a brilliant story last week from him on the cops’ latest Thunderbirds Battleship to take on the drug gangs) and Michael Coy, who has published some bangers over the last few years.

One of my favourites from Michael, a former London barrister, now settled in Ronda, was how he thankfully FINALLY got himself a pension for all his hard work in Spain over the decades.

But – as is often the way with us guiris – it didn’t come without something of a fight.

By Michael Coy

LIFE IN SPAIN: I Finally Got My Spanish Pension – But What a Long, Sad Tale…

A FAIRWAY TO TREAT NATURE

That was one of my favourite front page headlines and it was great to bring up the story – and our continual campaigning – at the Malaga gala.

In fact it was why we started the newspaper back in 2006 taking on the infamous golf course developers, Los Merinos, near Ronda.

This scandalous bunch, including the son of former Catalan leader Jordi Pujol, made millions as they began to concrete over a UNESCO protected virgin hillside, cutting down ancient oak trees and ignoring all local protests. 

That was before the Olive Press stepped in and turned the story into a global hot potato, followed up by the Telegraph, Times and Independent, which then, rightfully, got followed up in the Spanish national newspapers. To say, I became persona non grata around the halls of power in Ronda (where we launched from) would be something of an understatement.

Here is one of my favourite exclusive reports from back at the time, plus a specific tag we set up with all the stories on this disgraceful chapter in Spain’s environmental history.

Supreme Court scraps Andalucia’s most controversial golf macroproject Los Merinos near Ronda

Ronda’s Los Merinos golf macroproject has been scrapped by the Supreme Court after almost a decade of legal warfare

It was also great to relate it to the ongoing Save our Costas campaign, which we launched nearly a decade ago and is more important now than ever before, particularly with what is planned around Tarifa and at Cala Mosca, in Orihuela and Cope Marina, in Murcia.

Back in 2022 we published a nice catch-all of the most threatened places back at the time. They are all still in danger today, it should be noted.

I’d like to end this first of a regular missives from me by bringing up one final award we picked up this year.

OK, I know you are now questioning my modesty. But that award, the Trainee Journalist of the Year at the UK’s annual NCTJ gala was perhaps an even prouder moment for me.

For that’s the prestigious National Certificate for the Training of Journalists award and our young journalist Yzzy Bostyn snared it while working here for the Olive Press in Spain, beating a string of UK-based journalists including two finalists at the Times and the Midlands’ biggest newspaper group the Express & Star.

She achieved this (The Olive Press has scooped a prestigious UK journalism award: with campaigning young go-getter Yzabelle Bostyn) among other stories, for her excellent continuation of a long successful ‘Kill the Drug’ campaign the Olive Press launched into the lethal drug Nolotil.

The Olive Press has scooped a prestigious UK journalism award: with campaigning young go-getter Yzabelle Bostyn

We were the first media group to raise awareness of the dangers of this painkiller, which we discovered had been behind the death of dozens of victims (all northern Europeans) who were dished it out in Spain.

It was back in 2016 that we established a connection and began to warn our readers, before launching the campaign the following year, quickly joined by many other victims, and another Spanish medical campaigner Cristina Garcia del Campo.

It was amazing then, that last year we finally found the Spanish government taking steps to warn people of the drug.

So anyway, that’s all from me today folks. I hope you’ve had a nice summer and are delighted, like me, that the heat has finally subsided and we can look forward to a little bit of rain (not too much, mind) this Autumn for our gardens and parks.

And maybe, it’s the perfect time to be heading inland to one of the places that was far too hot to visit over the last three or four months.

THE CAT’S WHISKERS!

Here are two of my favourite travel articles of the last decade. One to the amazing, little known, Sierra de Gata, on the border of Extremadura and Salamanca:

The Cat’s Whiskers: Is Sierra de Gata Spain’s most delightful region?

HAM-AZING

And as the chestnut season is about to begin, how about a trip to the wonderful Aracena Natural Park, in Huelva. Excuse the pun, please

Ham-azing Aracena!

There are no cinemas, beaches and Chinese takeaways, but it’s ham heaven in the rolling mountain region of Aracena that few have heard of and even less visit, discovers Jon…

Last few hours

Back to School? Gift Knowledge for €27.50

And remember The Olive Press is offering a special back-to-school gift subscription aimed at school-age children, university students, or anyone eager to improve their English while learning about Spain and the world.

Pack their schoolbag with real stories

Please send me an email at jon@theolivepress.es if you’d like to suggest any stories or any way we can improve the Olive Press as we get set to enter our third decade next year.

Hasta Luego!

Our mailing address is:

The Olive Press

Edificio Centro Comercial El Duque, first floor, Carretera N340, km 144.5

San Luis de Sabinillas, Malaga 29692, Spain

Copyright © 2025 The Olive Press, All rights reserved.

Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.

Walter Finch, is the Digital Editor of the Olive Press and occasional roaming photographer who started out at the Daily Mail.
Born in London but having lived in six countries, he is well-travelled and worldly. He studied Philosophy at the University of Birmingham and earned his NCTJ diploma in journalism from London's renowned News Associates during the Covid era.
He got his first break working on the Foreign News desk of the Daily Mail's online arm, where he also helped out on the video desk due to previous experience as a camera operator and filmmaker.
He then decided to escape the confines of London and returned to Spain in 2022, having previously lived in Barcelona for many years.

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