Ramon Zallo, professor, writer and artichoke at the UPV, died at the age of 77

Ramón Zallo Elgezabal died on Monday, March 30, at the ageof 77. His last farewell will take place on Tuesday, March 31, from 17:00 to 19:00, at the Uribe Tanatory in Gernika-Lumo (Bizkaia), according to the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

Zallo was born in Gernika-Lumo in 1948 and, in addition to a degree in law and economics, was a doctor of information sciences. He started teaching at the Leioa Information Sciences Unit in 1978. He was appointed Professor of Audiovisual Communication in 1994 and served as Emeritus Professor from 2019 to 2022.

As a member of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Zallo pioneered research in the communication and cultural industries . As Zallo himself explained, "in those early years, with a critical attitude, functionalist sociology and the micro economy had to be overcome in order to provide a theoretical, structural, geographical and sectoral perspective, thus formalizing an economy of communication and culture, highlighting structures, agents and flows, in order to try to clarify the position of economics and commerce in the world of culture and digital."

Zallo has been the author of many works. He has published numerous articles on economics, culture, cultural and communication policies, as well as sociopolitical aspects. He published eleven books , the last of them 'Retrovisor and scalpel' (2025), a critical memory exercise on the last 60 years. He's been a director or co-director of a lot of other collective work.

Governance

In the field of public management, he was an adviser to the Minister of Culture of the Basque Government in the field of communication, audiovisual and culture during the legislatures from 2002 to 2009. He was the main author of the Basque Culture Plan (2004-2015) and the Guidelines for the Second Basque Culture Plan (2009-2012).

He participated in the Basque Audiovisual White Paper(2003), from which the EIKEN cluster emerged, as well as in the launch of the Basque Observatory for Culture (2006), in the drafting of Basque legislation on radio FM and Local Digital Television, in the drafting of the Communication and Audiovisual Council Bill and in the drafting of the Decree on Audiovisual Financing of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. He was also a consultant on two contract programs with EITB.

For seven years he was director of the Communication Structure and Policy Department of the Spanish Association for Communication Research, which he honored in 2020. He was also president of the Spanish section of the Latin Union for the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture. On 5 November 2025 he received the honorary award from the Association of Basque Journalists and the Basque Association of Journalists.