The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, held a meeting today with Lusa’s management and the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) regarding the news agency’s new governance model.
According to a statement from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, “the main lines of the new governance model, communicated and discussed today, aim to: streamline the company’s operational capacity, ensure editorial independence, and uphold the agency’s high professional standards.”
The changes highlighted include a Board of Directors with three executive members and four-year mandates, as well as streamlining corporate oversight with a sole auditor; and parliamentary scrutiny, requiring Lusa to share information with the parliament and making the Board of Directors and the Information Directorate available for regular parliamentary hearings.
Additionally, it includes the creation of an Advisory Council, “composed of various sectors and viewpoints, including parliament (three members), infra-national public entities (Autonomous Region of the Azores, Madeira’s Autonomous Region, ANMP), Lusa workers (two), and associations representing media organizations (five),” the statement reads.
This Advisory Council “is tasked with overseeing Lusa’s activities, monitoring the compliance with the public service contract and its quality standards, as well as safeguarding Lusa’s independence from political, economic, social, and sports powers.”
The new governance model for Lusa follows the process of consolidating the entire share capital of the agency under the state.
Today’s meetings between the responsible minister, the Board of Directors, the Information Directorate, and the Workers’ Committee of Lusa, as well as with the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication, were intended for “an exchange of views on the new model.”
