Antonio Fontán Pérez was a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 who fought for press freedom

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...

 and was later elected to the Spanish Senate as a member of the Unión de Centro Democrático coalition party in the first democratic general elections since the ending of the Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

 regime which were held in June 1977. He was a well-known Roman Catholic member of Opus Dei

Opus Dei

Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...

. He was one of the authors of the Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

's Constitution of 1978, which recognized freedom of expression and freedom of information as fundamental rights. He also served as a minister of the government from 1979 to 1982. At the time of his death Fontán was the president and publisher of Nueva Revista de Política, Cultura y Arte, a bimonthly magazine on current affairs, which he founded in 1990. The International Press Institute (IPI) has named him one of the "Heroes of Press Freedom."

He was the editor of the independent national daily Madrid from 1967 to 1971. The government suspended the liberal newspaper, which was in favor of democracy and against the authoritarian rule of General Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

, for four months in 1968 while Fontán was prosecuted on 19 occasions and fined some 10 times. In October 1971 the authorities demanded Fontán’s resignation, closing down the paper for good a few weeks later. Fontán’s staunch defense of the principles of free expression during those five years as editor of Madrid earned the paper and the men and women on its staff a unique place in the annals of Spanish journalism.

Early years

Fontán was born in Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, on 15 October 1923. Educated at the Universities of Seville and Madrid, he received his doctorate in classical philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 in 1948 and was active in clandestine royalist and liberal circles. He was the director of a weekly magazine, La Actualidad Española, and the monthly Nuestro Tiempo before joining the evening paper Madrid in September 1966, shortly after the introduction of a new press law had led to the lifting of prior censorship.

Struggle for press freedom under Franco's regime

When Fontán was appointed editor in chief of Madrid on 15 April 1967, however, he soon learned that the end of his life did not necessarily mean true freedom of the press. Madrid quickly became unpopular with the authorities for its coverage of such taboo subjects as student and labor unrest, the growth of regionalism, illegal trade unionism and opposition party activities. Fontán and his paper were bombarded with sanctions for publishing articles defending democracy and civil liberties and criticizing the Franco regime. Between January 1967 and May 1968 alone, proceedings were initiated against the paper on 12 separate occasions. Madrid was shut down for four months on 30 May 1968, inflicting heavy financial losses on the paper, which continued to pay the salaries of its staff.

After Madrid’s reappearance on 30 September 1968, judicial proceedings against the paper continued on a regular basis and under the smallest pretext. Finally, in October 1971 the Minister of Information, Sanchez Belle, demanded the replacement within 24 hours of Fontán with a journalist close to the Falange fascist party and the appointment of a director to represent the Ministry. In case of refusal, Belle warned, the newspaper would be temporarily suspended and an investigation started to consider its permanent closure. However, Madrid’s publisher and principal owner, Rafael Calvo Serer

Rafael Calvo Serer

Rafael Calvo Serer was a Professor of History of Spanish Philosophy, a writer, essayist. He was president of the Council of Administration of the newspaper Madrid, in which he published numerous articles on national and international politics...

, refused to agree to these conditions. The paper’s editorial staff formed a journalists’ association, the first of its kind in Spain, to defend the independence and dignity of the profession and to fight for the retention in office of the present editor.

On 25 November 1971, after the paper published an article critical of General Franco’s right-hand man, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco

Luis Carrero Blanco

Don Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero Blanco, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish admiral and long-time confidant of dictator Francisco Franco.- Biography :...

, the Ministry of Information removed Madrid from the register of press publishers, allegedly because of irregularities in the paper’s ownership. The Ministry also told the paper to cease publishing. The banning of Madrid affected public opinion and was widely criticized by the Spanish press. “To close an economically sound and well-read paper is murder,” commented the Catholic paper Ecclesia.

Madrid’s journalists and workers agreed to support the management and not surrender the newspaper to the official trade unions, which had offered to take charge of the newspaper under a new editor and with its own editorial line. “We are ready to sell the presses to pay the staff rather than agree that the paper should lose its independence,” the journalists said. Madrid stayed closed. Calvo Serer, who went into exile in France a few days before the government closed the paper, was tried in absentia and charged with actions “prejudicial to the reputation and authority of the State.”

When democracy was restored in Spain after Franco’s death and the monarchy was re-established in 1975, the Supreme Court revoked the order to close down Madrid. The state was ordered to pay damages to the paper, but this was not enough to restart the daily, which had sold everything in order to compensate its employees.

Work in politics and academe

Fontán was elected to the Senate as a member of the Unión de Centro Democrático coalition party in the first democratic general elections in June 1977. He was one of the authors of the country’s Constitution of 1978, which recognized freedom of expression and freedom of information as fundamental rights. He also served as a minister of the government from 1979 to 1982.

In addition to journalism and politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, Fontán has had an active career in academia

Academia

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

. He set up the first university-level school of journalism in Spain at the University of Navarra

University of Navarra

The University of Navarra is a private pontifical university based at the southeast border of Pamplona, Spain. It was founded in 1952 by St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei as a corporate work of the apostolate of Opus Dei....

 in 1958, a university under the guidance of the Roman Catholic prelature of Opus Dei

Opus Dei

Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...

, of which he was a numerary

Numerary

Numerary is a civil designation for persons who are incorporated in a fixed or permanent way to a society or group: regular member of the working staff, permanent staff, or member, distinguished from a supernumerary....

member.

He was made an honorary life member of IPI in 1984.http://www.freemedia.at/IPIReport/Heroes_IPIReport2.00/16Fontan.htm Fontán was the president and publisher of Nueva Revista de Política, Cultura y Arte, a bimonthly magazine on current affairs, which he founded in 1990. He was made Marqués de Guadalcanal (July 2008) by King Juan Carlos I as an hommage to his contributions to political freedom and civil peace in Spain.