The president of the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) expressed concern today about the collective dismissal at Global Media and warned that every time a journalist is fired, society loses a form of representation.
«Regarding dismissals, or amicable terminations, [...] we can only see it with great concern, because every time a journalist is fired, every time journalism loses a quality person, capable of reading the world and reporting it , [… ] society loses a mode of representation", stated Helena Sousa, in the Assembly of the Republic, in a hearing at the request of the PCP and BE, about the situation at Global Media.
On December 6, in an internal statement sent on the first of two days of strike by the group's workers, the group's Executive Committee, led by José Paulo Fafe, confirmed that it would urgently negotiate terminations with 150 to 200 workers and move forward with a restructuring that he said was necessary to avoid “the more than predictable bankruptcy of the group”.
The group owns titles such as Jornal de Notícias, Diário de Notícias, from TSF radio and the sports daily O Jogo.
At the end of July, the investment fund World Opportunity Fund, based in the Bahamas, a so-called “tax haven”, came to hold 51% of the share capital of Páginas Civilizados, which controls, directly and indirectly, 50,25% of Global Media and 22,35% of the Lusa news agency.
«Strictly speaking, the ERC is also unable to intervene in companies saying that it can or cannot fire that person or another. […] If parliament understands that the ERC must have reinforced powers, the ERC will work with all its commitment, with reinforced powers and, I believe, with better results», pointed out Helena Sousa in today's hearing.
The head of the regulator argued that it is necessary to reinforce skills in relation to the Transparency Law and also in coordination with other entities, for example in the financial or telecommunications areas, highlighting that it is not possible to defend social communication with the existing legal framework.
«In Portugal, we are still operating with sectoral press laws – for radio, television, etc. – when the reality is not sectoral, and we realize that these new realities and these paths that these groups or financial entities seek to take are also somehow seek to circumvent and benefit from some lack of clarity that the legislative framework has», defended the president of the ERC.
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