The hearing occurs one day after the Portuguese media regulator gave the green light for Vítor Gonçalves to be appointed as the news director of RTP, replacing António José Teixeira.
Last week, the dismissed news director António José Teixeira appeared before the parliamentary committee on Culture, Communication, Youth, and Sports, regarding a request from the PS party on the same matter.
“The reasons for the dismissal are those that were communicated to me,” said António José Teixeira on July 16, repeatedly citing “the need for renewal” and “restructuring” during approximately one hour of the hearing.
Regarding RTP3’s viewership, he emphasized several times that “the results have not changed in the last three years.”
However, “that doesn’t mean we are satisfied with them,” he continued, stressing that for this reason, investments were being made to improve results and offerings.
António José Teixeira had been the news director of RTP for over five years, having been appointed on January 7, 2020, and was informed of his dismissal on June 23.
At the end of the hearing, socialist deputy Porfírio Silva stated that the reasons invoked by the RTP Board for the dismissal of the television’s news direction “do not exist.”
“It became very clear that the previously invoked reasons do not exist because the reasons cited by the administration were the results, particularly the results of RTP3’s news channel,” the deputy remarked at the time.
“In fact, upon scrutinizing” the reports, among others, “the results of RTP3 were not worse than before, they held up better than the competition. RTP is not just RTP3; RTP’s news is mostly on RTP1 and not on RTP3 and other platforms,” Porfírio Silva continued when asked if the PS was satisfied with the hearing.
RTP3 is the least-watched of the four news channels, although it maintains the most consistent audience over the years, according to a Universal McCann (UM) analysis for Lusa.
In the analysis of audience evolution since 2021, “among the four news channels, RTP3 is the one with the smallest audience, yet it maintains a more consistent audience over the years.”
During this period, RTP3 recorded its lowest audience on May 22, 2021, with an average of about 6,000 viewers, corresponding to a 0.3% share.
Conversely, the highest was recorded on May 18 this year, with an average audience of around 41,000 viewers, equating to a 1.6% share.
RTP president Nicolau Santos has argued that something needs to be done with RTP3.
On June 18, 2024, in the same parliamentary committee, he advocated for the need to reform RTP2, noting that it was losing ground to the competition.
To clarify all questions, the RTP administration is being heard this morning by the parliamentary committee regarding the dismissal of the television news direction and its organization.
In a second part, the RTP president will be heard, at the request of the Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) party, about the editorial autonomy and technical and human resources of RTP Madeira, according to the agenda.
