Just as journalists syndicate “ponders” opening complaint over PM’s televised interview
Trade unions representing employees of Portugal’s public television and radio broadcaster, RTP, have accused the right centre coalition government of wanting to implement an illegal restructuring plan for the company aimed at bankrupting it, by not compensating for revenue loss that will result from the removal of paid advertising.
“The government, RTP’s shareholder, has thus presented a restructuring plan for its company with a view to bankruptcy, a restructuring that does not fulfil the legal requirements and which drags the unions into non-existent commitments and journalists into the mud,” said the 10 unions in a joint statement released late yesterday.
The unions representing RTP workers state that they were astonished to hear the news – announced the day before – about the restructuring plan for Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) – which includes the voluntary redundancy of 250 employees, an end to advertising in its broadcasts by 2027, with no increases in the level of the Audiovisual Contribution (CAV – the licence fee paid by households via utility bills), among other measures.
“What’s missing is the compensation plan for the real loss of revenue,” the unions emphasise, pointing to the fact that the state owes €14 million to RTP and the fact that the broadcaster “in its productions, due to a lack of technology, has been renting technical resources from private operators for a long time, namely SIC.”
Regarding the criticism of journalists made by the prime minister during Tuesday’s announcement – when he said they have questions to put to politicians communicated to them via earpieces – the union statement suggests that this just adds insult to injury, describing the citing of earpieces as “an instrument of ancient technique that turns journalism into conspiracy“.
The 10 unions – the Federation of Engineers (FE), Federation of Industry and Services Unions (FETESE), Communications Union of Portugal (SICOMP), Democratic Union of Postal, Telecommunications, Media and Services Workers (SINDETELCO), National Union of Telecommunications and Audiovisual Workers (SINTTAV), Syndicate of Journalists (SJ), Union of Service Sector Workers (SITESE), Independent Union of of Information and Communications Workers (SITIC), Audiovisual Media Union (SMAV) and Union of Telecommunications Workers (STT) – also report that they have already been summoned by RTP’s board of directors to a meeting next Tuesday to discuss the government’s package of measures for RTP, and the plan to shed employees.
For their part, the workers’ representatives have already requested meetings with the government and the various parliamentary parties.
“The signatory unions demand compliance with the law, refuse to be trampled on and want to be heard in everything that concerns RTP,” the statement continues. “The workers and the company don’t need charity, they need good leadership and politicians who know the sector.”
With all this blowing up, further controversy has followed: on Wednesday, the PM gave an exclusive interview to SIC’s Jornal da Noite, conducted by veteran journalist Maria João Avillez… except, according to the Syndicate of Journalists, Maria João Avillez’s ‘journalists’ card’ lapsed in 2008, and as such, they claim she should not have been allowed to lead a televised interview.
According to Correio da Manhã today, the syndicate is ‘analysing the situation’, but considering opening a complaint against both Avillez and SIC.
Says the syndicate’s president: “Just as a medical act has to be performed by doctors, the work of a journalist has to be done by journalists”.
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
