Portuguese journalists do not have many reasons to complain about job security when it comes to legal dispositions. However, in practical terms, the structural economic weakness of most media industries and the economic and financial crises play a major role when it comes to assessing their effective security. The legal guarantees aside, according to multiple sources, the day-to-day routine in media companies shows that things are becoming increasingly difficult for journalists, and this leads to silence and resignation rather than to confrontation and a struggle for one’s rights. “It’s better to try to avoid problems than to be involved in a long process in a court of law”, as was said by a seasoned journalist at a major newspaper.
In the last 10 years, all of the most important Portuguese news media downsized their newsrooms, dismissing dozens of journalists – some of them, but not all, through friendly negotiations. As we can see in Figure 1, between 2009 and 2020 the number of professional journalists decreased from 6,673 to 5,124, which means a reduction of 1,549 journalists (a drop of 23%). Not all of these are now unemployed as some of them probably switched to another job but some hundreds lost their jobs for sure given the frequent news we read about media companies downsizing their labour force, especially in the newsrooms (official numbers are not available). Even among those who are still working, many complain about their precarious situation. In the aforementioned study sponsored by Obercom, only 56.3 per cent of respondents said that they have a permanent labour contract and, therefore, legal job security. This means that all the others (nearly half of the respondents) have a more or less precarious labour condition. A total of 17 per cent are freelancers,[i] 10.5 per cent have a short-term contract, 16.4 per cent have a “collaborator” status which means no labour contract at all and no regular salary because they are paid according to the work they do. These last ones are the first to be “fired” because they have no formal link to the company they work for.
The fear of being the next to lose your job spreads among journalists and inculcates a more passive outlook. With this scenario, it is increasingly difficult for young people to find a new job in the media (Miranda & Gama, 2019). The competition is very strong because hundreds of them graduate from universities every year. Many of them will work as interns for three months with no pay, and then again as interns in another newsroom, again with no pay. “It’s good to make the curriculum and to be prepared for a permanent job when it comes”, they hear frequently. Therefore, it is not difficult to find someone who will accept precarious labour conditions (Graça, 2007), usually in the form of short-term contracts or no contracts at all. Legal job security does not help much in these situations.
This said it is important to acknowledge that some important legal protections are in place for journalists, particularly those related to the clause de conscience, according to which no one may be forced to write something against their convictions and ethical norms, and no one may suffer any kind of punishment for not doing it.
[i] This percentage must be read with caution, because, according to the Journalists’ Union sources, the real freelancers (journalists who choose to work with that status) are very few in Portugal – and always have been. Many of these “freelancers” are actually collaborators, with no labour contract, usually working for a specific media outlet but preferring to be free in order to get an opportunity in another company, if it appears.
