Portuguese laws formally guarantee the independence of journalists from the owner as well as the exclusive responsibility of the editor-in-chief over the content of the publication. Those laws, starting with the Portuguese Constitution itself, also establish the right for journalists to “participate in the editorial orientation” of the media they work in (art. 38). Some media reinforce these laws and guidance through internal rules. The question we ask is, what happens at a more informal level in the daily routines of journalistic choices.
All of the editors interviewed for this report insisted that there is complete independence of the newsroom from the ownership and management. In its first issue in 1990, the quality daily Público even published a text, endorsed both by the editorial board and by the owner, in which a formal commitment to independence was made.Rádio Renascença is in a special situation, as it is property of the Catholic Church and makes it clear that it is a radio station “with a Christian inspiration”. Nevertheless, the editor-in-chief does not think this puts editorial independence at stake, because the station clearly distinguishes between what is “pluralism of information” and what is “a doctrinal inspiration”.
The issue of independence of the public broadcasting service (PBS) in relation to the government is a permanent matter of debate in Portugal, especially with television. Their editors-in-chief pledge that the information area is completely independent of the government, but opposition parties occasionally raise doubts about this especially since the board of PBS was until six years ago directly appointed by the government. An important change occurred in 2014, when the Parliament approved a law (nr. 39/2014) that created a General Independent Council for Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP), to “de-governmentalise” public television and radio (Assembleia da República, 2014). This council is composed of six members: two appointed by the government, two appointed by the Opinion Council of the PBS, and two co-opted by the previous four. All of them are supposed to be “outstanding personalities with relevant professional experience and personal credibility”, guaranteeing adequate diversity in terms of regional origin, culture, and gender. Its main task is to supervise and monitor the fulfilment of contractual obligations by the public service radio and television. The appointment of the managing board is one of its main tasks, to ensure more independence from the government, its operational owner.
Independence from the marketing and advertisement departments of media companies is also a rule, although no one denies some timid attempts to break it. There is an increase in stories that are strongly informed by the commercial interests of advertisers. But those directly involved usually deny them as it would harm their credibility.
The golden rule of separation between the editorial area and the commercial or management area is a strict one. Nevertheless, there seem to occasionally arise problems of self-censorship. As one of our respondents confessed, “when we work in a company owned by an important group, of course we don’t forget that situation and, even in a non-explicit way, that tends to influence our choices”. This “can be felt at different levels of the newsroom”, beginning at the top and going down to the “individual work of some journalists”. Similar revelations were made by various journalists interviewed for a book, published in 2015, intended to discuss the increasing risks and menaces that affect this professional group in Portugal (Lopes, 2015).
