The Union of Journalists today asked the Assembly of the Republic to create legislation for greater scrutiny of investors who invest in the capital of media groups, in a hearing on the collective dismissal announced at the Global Media Group.
«The Journalists' Union would like to ask the Assembly of the Republic to create legislation so that financial funds cannot enter these media groups», said union member Augusto Correia, in a hearing, in parliament, of the union delegates of journalists from the newsrooms of the Jornal de Notícias, Diário de Notícias, TSF, O Jogo and Sindicato dos Jornalistas, about the collective dismissal at the Global Media Group (GMG), at the request of the PCP and BE parliamentary groups.
The JN journalist also defended greater scrutiny of financial funds, or any investor in the media, to ensure their suitability and ability “to do basic things, like paying salaries”.
On December 6, in an internal statement sent on the first of two days of strike by the group's workers, the GMG 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”.
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.
«This administration has only been in office for three months and entered like an elephant in a porcelain room. It is causing countless reputational and even economic damage, with almost daily statements from the CEO in the media. […] Advertising has already started to decline», pointed out union delegate Maria Augusta Casaca, from TSF, a radio station that went on strike in September, for the first in its 35-year history.
Workers' representatives said they were surprised by the administration's references to the group's poor financial situation, which it uses to justify the dismissals, as they contradict the intention to invest and grow securities demonstrated in the first meetings with union delegates.
«I don't believe that a competent person would buy a group the size of Global Media without understanding all the dimensions of that group, I only believe that millions of euros would be spent after knowing the entire financial reality of a group of this size», said the president of the Journalists Union Luís Filipe Simões.
According to that structure, since the entry of the new administration, salaries began to be paid on the last permitted day or the following day, which the company justified with transfers between different banks.
Additionally, the Christmas bonus was not paid, with the administration trying to impose payment in twelfths next year, the October salaries of precarious journalists with green receipts were also not transferred and there are fixed-term contracts that are not being renewed.
Union officials also denounced what they consider to be a “hostile” stance taken by José Paulo Fafe, even reading two emails sent to union delegates.
«[José Paulo Fafe] has made statements that I consider disrespectful towards people, union delegates, when he makes statements, generally to the newspaper Eco», pointed out TSF journalist Maria Augusta Casaca.
The parliamentary groups expressed solidarity with the situation of those workers and asked union officials for suggestions on how the Assembly of the Republic could act.
In addition to the legislation to scrutinize the entry of investors, the union also proposed the Nordic model of state financing for media organizations for “good journalistic work”, through applications in which the media are financed according to their merits.
«We don't have any problem with state funding, I'm more afraid of financial pressures, of journalists who don't have money, than of journalists who receive phone calls from politicians. We are well prepared to deal with the pressures, we are not prepared to not have money at the end of the month», defended Augusto Correia.
According to the union, 19% of the group's journalists receive a salary of 820 euros and there are workers who have never received a raise in 20 years.
The termination program at Global Media Group ends next Wednesday, December 20th, an official administration source confirmed to Lusa.
The dismissal of the director of Dinheiro Vivo (DV), Bruno Contreiras Mateus, on December 14, increased the number of dismissals in management positions in the group to 11, along with five from Jornal de Notícias (JN), two from the sports newspaper The Game and Three, on December 12th, on TSF.
On Sunday, JN workers, whose dismissals will affect around 40 people, assured that they will resort to all legal and judicial means to defend their rights. In the case of TSF, the number of affected posts is around 30.
Meanwhile, the Journalists' Union made a statement to the General Inspector of the Authority for Working Conditions (ACT), requesting the entity's intervention in monitoring «several irregularities» in the media group.
Comments