Evocation of Baptista‑Bastos

An evocation of Armando Baptista-Bastos, who stood out as one of the leading journalists and writers of this century. In his words, “journalism is a superior discipline of literature”.

With testimonials from Fernando Dacosta, Mário Zambujal, Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Alexandre Borges, Gonçalo Pereira da Rosa, Rui Cardoso, Ernesto Rodrigues and Isaura Baptista-Bastos.

 

 

Armando Baptista-Bastos was born in Lisbon on February 27, 1934 and died in May 2017.

He began his journalistic career in “O Século”, but it was at the service of “Diário Popular” – where he worked for twenty-three years (1965-1988) – that he would gain greater notoriety, especially in genres such as interview and reportage.

He also belonged to the editorial boards of República, O Diário, Ocidental, Almanaque, Seara Nova, Gazeta Musical, Todas as Artes, Época and Sábado. He worked as a copywriter for Agence France Press in Lisbon. He collaborated, as a columnist, in several periodicals, namely Jornal de Notícias, A Bola, Tempo Livre and, as a critic, in Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, Expresso, Jornal do Fundão, Correio do Minho, Público and Diário Económico. He founded the weekly O Ponto, a periodical that recorded a series of seminal interviews. At the microphones of Antena Um and Rádio Comercial he read some of his chronicles.

He became better known to the general public through interviews carried out on SIC between November 1996 and January 1998. In these “Secret Conversations”, he asked all the guests the question "where were you on 25 de Abril?", which would be later glossed by Herman José in the program "Herman Enciclopédia".

He published more than a dozen fiction titles and received several awards, including: Book Fair Award (1966), Artur Portela Award (1978), National Reporting Award/Gazeta Award 1985, Casa da Imprensa Award (1986), Award «The Best Journalist of the Year» (1980 and 1983), Pen Clube Award (1987) and City of Lisbon Award (1987).