Antonio Fontán. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Antonio Fontán Pérez, Full Professor of Latin, journalist, politician and writer, has died in Madrid at the age of 86. Fontán Pérez, who was born in Seville on October 15, 1923, was the first director of the high school of Journalism of the University of Navarra and former Dean of the School of Philosophy and Letters of the academic center. He was currently president and publisher of NUEVA REVISTA de Política, Cultura y Arte, a publication he founded in 1990, and president of committee Deontológico de la Federación de Asociaciones de la Prensa de España (FAPE).

He studied Philosophy and Letters at the Universities of Seville and Complutense (then called Madrid). He graduated in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Madrid (Philology Classical), in June 1944, and received his doctorate in the same School and section with award Extraordinary in 1948. His doctoral thesis , "Manuscritos de Séneca en Bibliotecas españolas y la tradición de los diálogos", was published in the journal Emerita (1949 et seq.). Subsequently, he obtained the Chair of Philology Latina at the University of Granada in 1949 and graduated from the Official School of Journalism in Madrid in 1953. He belonged to Opus Dei since 1943.

He was a member of the Private committee of Don Juan de Borbón, Count of Barcelona, and of the Commission of Professors of Civil programs of study of the then Prince Juan Carlos, current King of Spain. He was successively senator (1977-1979) and deputy (1979-1982) for the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) party; president of the Senate in the constituent legislature (1977-1979) -for which King Juan Carlos awarded him the distinction of Marquis of Guadalcanal-; and Minister of Territorial Administration (1979-1980).

curriculum journalistic

He was founder and director of the University of Navarra magazine Nuestro Tiempo (1954-62) and the weekly La Actualidad Española (1952-1956). He directed Diario Madrid from its renewal in 1967 until 1971, when the government closed it down. He also chaired the foundation that bears the name of the newspaper.

Initiator in Spain of the high school International Press Institute (IPI), he was a member of the committee International of this institution from 1975 to 1978, when he resigned at his own request after being elected president of the Spanish Senate. He chaired the Spanish section of high school from 1975 to 1978 and again from 1981 to 1983. He was appointed Honorary Life Member of high school at the 1984 Stockholm Assembly. The committee Executive proclaimed him World Press Freedom Heroes in May 2000, position , which is held by only one journalist per country among the distinguished professionals in the exercise and defense of press freedom in the world.

That same year he received the IV award Brajnovic of Communication awarded by the University of Navarra, picking up the baton from Miguel Delibes, Violeta Chamorro and David Puttman.

Antonio Fontán received numerous public distinctions, among them the Grand Cross of the Commander of the Polish Embassy; the award Rodríguez Santamaría 2006, awarded by the association de la Prensa de Madrid; and the award Libertad, awarded by the liberal club 1812 of Cádiz.

He was also a member of the editorial boards of Atlántida magazine in Madrid (1962-1965) and La Table Ronde in Paris (1958 et seq.), and partner of several Spanish, French and German magazines. He also held various positions, such as vice-president of Cadena de Emisoras SER, president of Agencia de advertising CID, president of Distribuidora de advertising and member of some boards of directors. As a journalist, he published more than a thousand articles on current political, social and cultural issues in the main Spanish newspapers and magazines.

Academic background

As for his academic facet, he was the first director of the high school of Journalism of the University of Navarra (1958-1962), the current School of Communication. He was also Dean of the School of Philosophy and Letters of this campus in a stage core topic for the development professor e researcher of the center. He was Full Professor emeritus at the Complutense University and Honorary Professor at the University of Navarra.

On the other hand, he served as a member of the board of trustees of the General Foundation of the Autonomous University of Madrid and of the committee of the President of the Complutense University, and as president of the Royal board of trustees of the Library Services National from 1997 to March 2004. In his research career there are more than 70 publications of his specialization program, focused on the culture and ideas of the classical world, textual criticism, humanism and the philosopher Seneca.

Books and main publications

Some of his books and main publications are Los tópicos y la opinión; "Artes ad humanitatem". Ideals of man and culture in Cicero's time; Roman Humanism (classical, medieval, modern); Notes on the State in the democratic society; Spain, that hope; Album of the Royal Family; A policy for the liberals; The liberals creators of the modern State; The keys of the transition (1975-1985); Pliny, Natural History I- III; Letters and Power in Rome; Titus Livi. Història de Roma; and Princes and humanists. Nebrija, Erasmus, Machiavelli, Moro, Vives.

roundtable on 98.3 Radio with professors Alfonso Nieto, Mónica Herrero, Carlos Barrera and Carmen Castillo.