The ERC released reports today on television and radio coverage of the elections, noting a shift in television election coverage from May 13, just four days before the campaign’s end, linked to a health incident involving the leader of Chega, which also explains the results concerning the most highlighted topics.
Among these topics, according to the ERC, the “performance of parties and their candidates” stood out, with the “health of candidates” gaining importance.
The ERC also stated that the “health incident of the Chega leader resulted in an increase in the number of pieces dedicated to this candidacy on television, affecting the presence of the others.”
However, the impact varied among different program services, being particularly noticeable in the coverage by CNN, CMTV, and News Now.
The ERC’s analysis indicates that “four parliamentary candidacies — AD, PS, Chega, and Iniciativa Liberal — stood out in the number of appearances in the analyzed news blocks,” while the other parliamentary candidacies, namely BE, CDU, Livre, and PAN, “registered lesser prominence.”
The ERC also found “different journalistic approaches to non-parliamentary candidacies, even though they always had a residual presence in the monitored radio and television programs.”
The main figures in most of the news pieces analyzed were the party leaders, according to the regulator.
The ERC noted that during the electoral campaign period, “all radio and television program services complied with the suspension of candidates’ participation in commentary spaces and/or programs.”
The regulator mentioned that the reports released today were based on the analysis of prime-time news broadcasts from RTP1, RTP2, RTP3, SIC, SIC Notícias, TVI, CNN Portugal, CMTV, News Now, and Porto Canal, as well as morning news at 8:00 and 9:00, and daily campaign reports from Antena 1, Rádio Observador, Rádio Renascença, and TSF, broadcasted between May 4 and May 16.
The ERC’s analysis also included “the participation of candidacies in interview and debate spaces throughout the entire electoral period, including the pre-campaign (from March 20 to May 16).”
