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Government rejects free service from Lusa

Government rejects free service from Lusa

Government rejects free service from Lusa

Pedro Duarte was speaking on a panel titled ‘Media Crisis: Should the State Intervene?’ at the PSD Summer University, a political training initiative for young people taking place until Sunday in Castelo de Vide (Portalegre), moderated by journalist and director of Eco, António Costa.

“We do not advocate for free Lusa services (…) Not free, but obviously creating better conditions and trying to reduce costs for media outlets, I think we will move in that direction,” said the minister, who oversees media.

On July 31, the State bought 45.71% of Global Media and Páginas Civilizadas’ stake in Lusa for 2.49 million euros, now holding 95.86% of the Portuguese news agency’s capital.

Pedro Duarte said the Government is working with Lusa’s board of directors to find “special prices, discounts” for all media outlets, “with particular emphasis on local and regional media.”

The minister admitted that the current Government has a different view on this point from the previous PS executive, which defended this free service, considering that it would have “some associated problems.”

“We can never create a logic that there is only one vision, one approach to the event. There is a risk that if we suddenly distribute Lusa’s service for free, that will be the only prism through which it is viewed,” he said, adding that the Government received warnings from journalists’ representatives that this free service could result in layoffs in other media.

During the Q&A session, several young people participating in the PSD Summer University questioned the Government about strengthening its presence in Lusa, particularly how it intends to ensure the news agency’s editorial independence.

“We will also make some short-term changes to reinforce that independence. At the moment, the Government directly appoints the board of directors, which chooses the management. We will try to find some intermediate ‘layers’ that reinforce this independence, the last thing the Government wants is to interfere with the editorial functioning of the outlets,” he said, saying he could not provide more details at this time.

The minister, who argued that the State should play a role in the face of the media crisis he considered structural, ruled out a model of direct support from the action plan for the sector that the executive is preparing, as happened with the previous executive during the pandemic.

“The action plan for the media will have this red line, it will never have direct support as it did a few years ago,” he assured.

On the opposite side of State intervention in the media sector, journalist António Costa argued that RTP should stop having private advertising revenue, a challenge that did not receive a direct response, but with the minister questioning whether there are conditions to increase annual funding via the State Budget.

Pedro Duarte said he is preparing “a quiet revolution” with RTP’s board of directors to promote its technological modernization and left a clue.

“We have to ensure high quality in information, it is not justified for Portuguese people to pay 190 million euros a year to, forgive me the expression, give contests in the late afternoon,” he said.

Still on strengthening the State’s position in Lusa, Minister Pedro Duarte rejected journalist António Costa’s view that it would be a “disguised subsidization” of the Global Media group.

“It was not a subsidy in any way (…) This was a gesture to purify – the word is a bit excessive – Lusa in the sense of being free from some constraints of having market agents that were part of Lusa’s shareholder structure conditioning it. We want to change Lusa’s public service contract, modernizing it, bringing it to this time, and the statutes allowed that shareholder to block this new public service contract, now we can do it,” he explained.

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