Journalists Matter, Council of Europe Campaign for the Safety of Journalists
The Council of Europe encourages member states to transpose the Campaign to the national context. Without each member’s committed and effective effort at national level, through the development of the so-called ‘national chapter’, the Campaign cannot reach its goals.
In this section, we will present developments in Portugal:
National Focal Point
Mr Sérgio GOMES DA SILVA, Director of International Relations and Communication at the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
National Campaign Committee
The Portuguese Government has established a new entity, #PortugalMediaLab from 8 August 2024, with the mission of coordinating and monitoring public policies related to media by supporting the design and implementation of a Media Action Plan. Assuming the media-related competencies previously managed by the Secretariat-General of the Council of Ministers, it operates under the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and engages with diverse stakeholders such as traditional and digital media, academia and civil society.
#PortugalMediaLab key responsibilities include:
Developing and implementing the Media Action Plan
Representing Portugal internationally in discussions on public media policies, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Designing and implementing a National Action Plan for Media Literacy to be approved by the Council of Ministers.
The Media Action Plan announced on 8th October 2024 foresees the creation of a Safety of Journalists Action Plan, to be presented in the first quarter of 2025, bringing together related entities and stakeholders.
The strategy for the Safety of Journalists will be developed addressing five axes:
Raise public awareness on journalists’ roles.
Protect against digital threats and coercion.
Safeguard against physical and psychological threats.
Enhance understanding of the challenges faced by journalists and media professionals.
Promote the participation of stakeholders, activity coordination and impact/progress evaluation.
Safety of Journalists National Landscape
Portugal has taken significant steps to ensure the safety and protection of journalists through legislation that offers a wide scope of guarantees. Journalists benefit from legal rules that range from valuing their personal safety to social and labour protection. In the first case, specifically through penal provisions that especially increase the penalties for physical assault and homicide offences. In the same way they can rely on law enforcement cooperation for protection and advice when covering demonstrations and other security risk events; in the second case, through the granting of equal rights to other workers, both in terms of job protection and state support in the event of unemployment. Similarly, journalists have, subject to a few justified exceptions, the right of access to administrative documents, a guarantee of protection of sources and even special road traffic and parking rights to increase the efficiency of their work.
When addressing the security and business sustainability of regional and local media organisations, there are state subsidies to support journalists’ employment and regional/local media outlets’ technological modernisation. This is done through a specific legal framework that rules the funding of approved projects.
There are problems observed mainly concerning journalist’s working conditions, job insecurity and media business sustainability. This is mostly due to the crisis scenario that the media is experiencing, with reduced revenues and disinvestment aggravated by the decline in audiences and advertising sales namely as a result of changes in information consumption habits. Moreover, the country has registered the last months on a slight increase of incidents regarding aggressions or threats to journalists’ integrity.
Portugal, National chapter
