He then joined the staff of the Österreichische Post of Vienna, which he represented at Berlin; later he served as the Paris correspondent for several newspapers.
In 1855 he returned to Vienna, where he edited the Oesterreichische Zeitung, serving as official spokesman for Karl Ludwig von Bruck against Alexander von Bach’s policies that curtailed freedom of the press and empowered the Catholic Church to control education and family life.
After Austria's emperor Franz Joseph promulgated a new constitution in 1861, Basch acted in a similar capacity for the Anton von Schmerling ministry, with whose political party he remained connected until its fall.
He represented the Neue Freie Presse at Paris; and, in close fellowship with Adolphe Thiers, Léon Gambetta, and Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, he defended the republican policy against the men of 16 May.
He has published a number of political pamphlets; Two of these, entitled Deutschland, Oesterreich, und Europa, and Oesterreich und das Nationalitätenrecht, Stuttgart, 1870 — which appeared under the pseudonym Ein Altoesterreicher — created on their appearance a great sensation in Austria.