Gustavo Costa began cooperating with Expresso in 1989. Our correspondent was in Luanda and died in the early hours of Friday, 00:03 in the Angolan capital, the victim of a stroke. When we discussed things over the phone, he listened intently, briefly explained how he intended to handle the matter, paused and concluded, repeating, “Yes, yes, yes.” We were comfortable. Or we start harassing him with phone calls when there is a delay or when the Lisbon editions demand in anticipation: “Jojo!!” , he answers. “Yes Yes Yes”. Just another half hour…
His journalistic intuition and the list of contacts he had at his disposal ensured that something would surprise us in Return of the Mail. A few hours before he had his stroke, we talked about the script he wrote for “Revista E” in preparation for the August 24 elections and insisted, and admired, the tension felt in the air in the media that rushed into writing. Which will become Expresso’s last report.
Gustavo Costa has never worked in an easy environment, which could have been motivating in some years, because freedom in Angola is Angola. As some of my post-Edwardian interviewees tell me, each in their own way, you can talk, you don’t know what the consequences are. It could have been worse before, and for this reason, Gustavo Costa was sentenced in January 2000 to a year in prison, suspended for 19 months, and a fine of 4,000 contos (about 20,000 euros).
He was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence and a fine
The case was brought by the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Presidency of the Republic of Angola, following the publication of a news article that stated that the Angolan President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, denounced the involvement of an official in his office in the corruption schemes. Gustavo Costa’s defense appealed the conviction, but those were times when corruption was a taboo in Angola.
In a text published in the newspaper “Público” in February 2000, Reginaldo Silva wrote that Gustavo Costa “was the last journalist to be tried in Luanda under an absolute ‘blackout’ regime, based on the fact that it was a private crime. Allowing the prosecution to request a trial behind closed doors, Because publicity can have a greater impact on the victim.” Moreover, Reginaldo Silva wrote that this sentence was so cruel that “it was said in Luanda that even the lawyer of Chief of Staff Eduardo dos Santos was surprised by the severity of the sentence.”
Gustavo Costa started his journalistic work in the 1970s in the post-independence period, in the Journal de Angola. Scroll through “JDM – Jornal Desportivo Militar”, Portuguese “Record”, Expresso and sometimes BBC. He was part of the team that launched the “Novo Jornal”, which would later become the deputy director and director, of which it was said “it was a breath of fresh air in the Angolan press panorama”. In this way, I won several awards.
In a 2015 biographical note, it is read that during his long career for critical journalism, Gustavo Costa has received numerous awards, including the National Journalism Award and the Mabok Journalism Prize. Worthy! The numerous articles he wrote on Expresso attested to this, “Yes, yes, yes!”.
