There is a Code of Ethics for journalists, prepared under the responsibility of the national Journalists’ Union – the only national association of journalists in the country. Within the Journalists’ Union, there is also an Ethics Council.
The Code is well known, but the fact that it was created in the context of the Journalists’ Union, added to the fact that Portuguese journalists are not obliged to join the Union (and more than 50 % actually don’t), raises frequent questions about its reach and jurisdiction. In 2007, this situation changed by the initiative of the Government. Apart from the Union, there is a national commission (presided over by a judge) that has the responsibility to grant the journalists’ professional credential – no one can work as a journalist in Portugal if he/she does not have the professional card (Carteira Profissional de Jornalista), which must be renewed every two years and which depends on some legal conditions. Since 2007, this Commission also has disciplinary powers regarding the journalists’ ethical duties. This means that, under the new law, a journalist, regardless of whether he/she belongs to the Union, can suffer sanctions if it is proved that he/she disrespected the Code of Ethics.
Although this Commission is composed entirely of journalists, half of them elected by the professional group and the other half appointed by the media companies, the new system raised strong debates among the Portuguese journalists, who would prefer ethical questions to be treated by the journalists themselves, on an autonomous (selfregulatory) basis, and not by a Commission ‘imposed by law’ (a model of ‘regulated self-regulation’). On its behalf, the Government argued that this measure was taken simply because the journalists’ professional group had not proved to be capable of dealing with this problem autonomously.
There is no Press Council. Whoever wants to complain about media ethical abuses must address either the Media Regulatory Entity (ERC) or the Commission of the Journalists’ Professional Chart (CCPJ).
