The report “Mithra, the Storehouse of the Wretched”published in the Expresso magazine in August 2024 and signed by Raquel Moleiro, Joana Pereira Bastos, Tiago Miranda and Rúben Tiago Pereirais the winner of the fifth edition of Vicente Jorge Silva Excellence Journalism Award.
In the statement announcing the winner of the award, given by Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda (INCM), in partnership with the Journalists Club, the award jury, chaired by Nicolau Santos, justifies the decision as follows: “Supported by exemplary research, this report reconstructs the universe of a time and the way in which the Estado Novo treated the most disadvantaged. A work that, combining rigor, sensitivity and narrative precision, reconciles us with the best journalism, one that returns clarity to the collective memory. In this case, really touching the emotion.”
In the award-winning report, Expresso journalists recall how “in the warehouses of an old cork factory, in Lisbon, the dictatorship arrested those who wanted to ‘clean’ the streets – beggars, vagrants, cripples, crazy people and prostitutes. They shaved their hair, put a tuxedo uniform on them and a number around their necks. Controlled by PSP, more than 20,000 adults and children were hidden there from the public eye, many for several decades. Catarina Maria joined 70 years ago. And it’s still there.”
The award jury also awarded two honorable mentions: to the research work “O Chameleon”, by Cristina Margato and José Pedro Castanheira, also published in the Expresso magazine, about how the PCP helped to rehabilitate Lima de Carvalho, a former censor of the Estado Novo, and the report “Anatomy of a Detention by the PSP”by Joana Gorjão Henriques, Joana Bougard and José Carvalheiro, from Público, about two attacks by Chega protesters on young people and their detention.
The Vicente Jorge Silva Journalism of Excellence Award distinguishes works “that reinforce the different styles of the written press and contribute to a more informed society”, awarding the winner a journalistic research grant not worth 5000 euros.
In its fifth edition, 43 works of various genres were submitted to the competition (reporting, analysis, investigation), signed by 63 journalists from more than two dozen media outlets.