Claim government has neglected sector
Around 50 radio stations across the country have joined a boycott of the election campaign in protest to the government’s neglect of the sector, the Portuguese Broadcasting Association (APR) has said today.
“Combined with the lack of any measures by recent governments to benefit the sector, the change to the radio law on February 6 was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” APR explains in a statement.
According to the association, the boycott is aimed at “publically demonstrating discontent over the last few years of government” – and could also cover the European elections, due to take place in June.
What this means is that there will be no debates or interviews with candidates, no monitoring of campaign activities and no dissemination of specific information about the various candidates.
The radios have protested in the past – blanking the 2019 European elections and the legislative elections of the same year.
“We believe this boycott is essential to demonstrate the dissatisfaction of radio stations with the neglect they have been subjected to by the last few governments, which have not only not accepted any of the proposals put forward by the sector, but have also failed to implement proposals put forward by the government itself in the context of State Budgets approved over the last few years,” says APR.
With the amendment to the radio law, enacted earlier this year, the minimum quota for Portuguese music on national stations was set at 30%. This implied an increase in many cases, complicated further by many more bureaucratic obligations.
Earlier today, Lusa reported that seven radio stations of the Transmontana regional chain (CIR) have also decided to boycott campaign coverage.
Luís Mendonça, president of APR and a spokesperson for CIR, stressed that various proposals had been presented to the various governments of the past that could have helped mitigate problems.
Among these was the allocation of airtime to local radio stations in legislative elections, since only in local elections and referendums do they have the right to broadcast these spaces, which are paid for and essentially used to publicise political campaigns.
In legislative elections, airtime is only allocated to national radio and television stations.
“These were interesting amounts to help us live day-to-day,” he said.
For Mendonça, another way of helping local radio stations could be through State advertising.
Source: LUSA
