Journalist Luis Mariñas dies

The journalist and academic at the Academy of Television Sciences and Arts, Luis Mariñas, died this Monday of natural causes at the age of 63 at his home in Madrid. Mariñas was a very prominent man in the Spanish Radio Television Newscasts, first in Galicia and later in Prado del Rey and Torrespaña. He was the founder of Telecinco's News News and its first director in 1990.

The journalist and academic of the Academy of Television Sciences and Arts Luis Mariñas died this Monday of natural causes at the age of 63 at his home in Madrid. Luis Mariñas suffered an aortic aneurysm two years ago, which he managed to overcome but which left him with after-effects. In his last days he felt unwell and had severe chest pains.

Luis Mariñas was a very prominent man in the Spanish Radio Television Newscasts, first in Galicia and later in Prado del Rey and Torrespaña. He was the founder of Telecinco News and its first director in 1990. He moderated the second Electoral Debate between Felipe González and José María Aznar in May 1993. He is one of the few journalists who, although focused on television, has also developed his career in radio and the written press.

The president of the Television Academy, Manuel Campo Vidal, wanted to highlight that "Luis Mariñas was one of the living Treasures of television in Spain. In addition to being an excellent communicator and interviewer, he was an architect of the news. This was demonstrated in Madrid and before in Galicia, on public and private television, in the audiovisual world and also in the written press. Rigorous, always very well documented and with a special instinct to detect the news, he can be considered a teacher of journalists, as in these very times "The professionals who have contacted the Television Academy recognize this as harsh." “On a personal note, I would like to add, because it is fair to say it, that he was a great person as his friends and those who worked with him know,” he noted.

Luis Mariñas Lage

He began his career as a Telecommunications Engineer, which he abandoned to dedicate himself to journalism. At the age of 19 he began working at TVE's Prado del Rey studios in Madrid, during the times of Victoriano Fernández Asis, Jesús Álvarez and Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo.

At that time he participated in the founding of one of the first large-circulation general information magazines titled Personas. He was a regular collaborator of RNE.

In 1974 he was appointed director of TVE in Galicia, where he launched the program Panorama of Galicia, the first regional informative program in the history of television. He was also the first to use Galician in an informative program.

In 1977, again in Madrid, he directed two programs: 19 provinces and Information 1, aimed at communities that did not have a regional center at that time.

Later, with Iñaki Gabilondo as director of News at TVE, he was head of the National Area.

In March 1982, he was appointed director and presenter of the first edition of Telediario, making him the second youngest professional (the first was Lalo Azcona) to combine both functions on the public network. At that time he carried out the first program from Torre España, when it was still in its inaugural phase.

Later he was director of the second edition of Telediario presented by Manuel Campo Vidal. In those times, without private television, the average audiences were 16 million people.

In 1985 he left TVE and was appointed advisor to the Minister for Relations with the Cortes and the Government Secretariat, Virgilio Zapatero. For almost four years he directed the communication and new technologies courses at the Menéndez Pelayo International University.

In February 1987, with Pilar Miró as general director, he was again appointed director of the first edition of the Telediario. On March 13, 1990, with the birth of private television, he was appointed Director of News at Telecinco.

Months later, the first edition of The News and, later, the second edition that managed to break, on occasions, the usual leadership of the TVE Newscasts.

On Telecinco he launched other programs that he also presented as The moment of truth, Deadline, y Editorial desk.

He also presented and directed numerous election nights, both on TVE and Telecinco. On May 31, 1993, he was the moderator of The decisive debate, which faced Aznar and González on Telecinco.

Among his most notable works is also the interview in Baghdad with the then president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, before the first Gulf War. He also interviewed Gorbachev after the disintegration of the USSR.

He collaborated in several newspapers (Diario 16, La Voz de Galicia, Diario Digital, Metro) and was a talk show host for La lantern de la Cope with Luis Herrero.

He directed the program TVE's breakfasts. He then went on to present the Telemadrid program on science, technology and humanities, Light years.

He currently served as press officer for Puertos del Estado, an organization chaired by Fernando González Laxe. He was also a professor and member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of Business Communication (ICE).