Search results : 109

On 17 July 2026, the European Commission published its seventh annual report on the rule of law. The report examines developments in every EU country as well as in four enlargement countries: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The report assesses positive and negative developments in four key areas, one of which relates to media pluralism and freedom. It is accompanied by country chapters and a set of recommendations targeted at each country. With regard to the independence of media regulators, the Commission recalls that both the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and...

The Portuguese parliament has finalised the implementation of the Digital Services Act, designating the National Authority for Communication (Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações - ANACOM) as the Portuguese Digital Service Coordinator. Law No. 12-A/2026, of 15 April, has also established, as other coordinators, the Media Regulatory Agency (Entidade reguladora para a comunicacao social - ERC) and the National Commission for Data Protection (Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dado - CNDP).   ANACOM is now the national authority that supervises the compliance...

The ruling party in Portugal wants to prevent teenagers under 16 from freely accessing social networks. A law proposal was debated and approved at the Parliament last February. The bill will now go to committee for detailed debate. With the votes of the majority of the parties (except the far-right and Christian parties), the bill states that children aged 13 or older would only be able to access social networks with the express and verified consent of their parents or legal guardians. Creating a new account for children under the age of 13 would not be possible and, according to the bill,...

In SIC – Sociedade Independente de Comunicação, S.A. v. Portugal (No. 2), a judgment of 13 January 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section) examined the right to privacy of audience members at a comedy show whose recorded images and voices were subsequently broadcast on television and made available online by a commercial company without their express consent. The company, which held the rights to the recording of the show, relied upon its right to freedom of expression. The Court held, unanimously, that the fine imposed on the company by the domestic courts...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has dismissed the complaint of a journalist invoking her right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The case concerns the criminal conviction of Tânia Alexandra Ferreira e Castro da Costa Laranjo for the publication of an article based on an audio recording of a taped telephone conversation between two politicians, without their consent. The litigious article was published in a tabloid newspaper and quoted from a taped telephone conversation between two politicians, A.V., a former minister,...

On 25 July 2024, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Belgium, Croatia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, indicating their failure to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA). These member states had failed to designate or afford the necessary powers to their Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) – national competent authorities responsible for the supervision of providers of intermediary services and enforcement of the DSA. The deadline for the designation of DSCs passed on 17 February 2024. The responsibility for monitoring the application and implementation...

The Digital Services Act (DSA) required all member states to designate their Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) by that 17 February 2024. Article 49 of the DSA requires the selection of a DSC from among the competent authorities responsible for the supervision of intermediary services and the enforcement of the DSA. However, on 24 April 2024, the European Commission decided to open infringement proceedings against six member states for failing to fulfil their obligations under EU law by sending them letters of formal notice. The countries in question have either not designated a DSC (Estonia,...

The Portuguese Media Regulatory Agency has published a report on advertising targeting children and commercial communications in children's channels and/or programs, suggesting a lack of compliance by TV channels. Advertising forbidden food due to nutritional composition is among the most irregularities found in the report. In that matter, TV channels present a highly diverse performance, with the public broadcasting service showing that, in the period analysed, there was no advertising or commercial communications in the block programming aimed at children. The study, conducted in the...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has once again found a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in a criminal defamation case, related to an issue of public interest. The ECtHR in particular observed that the criminal conviction of the applicant appeared to be manifestly disproportionate, as the Portuguese Civil Code provided for a specific remedy in respect of damage to honour and reputation. The ECtHR also found the award of damages which the applicant was required to pay manifestly disproportionate, taking into consideration that the critical...

In November 2023 the Government approved a national plan to promote media literacy in various sectors of society. Although there is a natural focus on pre-university schools, the document also established guidelines that include informal and lifelong education. The purpose is to enable citizens to better deal with informative content, and to fight misinformation and dissemination of false content. This is the first time a national plan has been launched in this field. Starting with the acknowledgement that there is a deficit in Portugal regarding access to and reading the news, the legislative...

In 2022, the majority of Portuguese broadcasters complied with the pre-determined quota of transmission time for Portuguese, European and independent works. The annual report, prepared by the national Media Regulatory Authority (ERC), points out, however, that the second public broadcaster (RTP2) has failed to meet its obligations in terms of broadcasting Portuguese works in 20% of its transmission time. All of the other free-to-air generalist channels, as well as the generalist pay-TV channels (mainly dedicated to informative services), have fulfilled their obligations. The quotas were...

On 27 October 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on a case between the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, IP (Film and Audiovisual Media Institute – ICA), which is responsible in particular for granting financial support to cinematographic and audiovisual activities, and NOWO Communications SA, a subscription television operator. This support is funded, inter alia, by the revenue from the annual subscription fee payable by subscription television service operators under Article 10(2) of Law No. 55/2012 and by the tax on the broadcasting of advertisements...

On 17th May 2023, the European Commission published its report on the application of Articles 13 (non-linear services), 16 and 17 (linear services) of the AVMS Directive for the period 2015-2019. Since the new rules introduced in 2018 had not yet entered into force at national level in 2019, the report only refers to the obligations under Directive 2010/13/EU. It is accompanied by a Study which addresses the legislative changes affecting linear and non-linear services, the developments in the audiovisual market as well as a content analysis of offers by broadcasting and on-demand services. Application...

On 15 February 2023, the European Commission announced it had referred 11 Member States to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failure to notify the Commission about the transposition of two copyright Directives, namely Directive 2019/789 on copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions (SatCab II Directive) (see IRIS 2019-5/3), and Directive 2019/790 on copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) (see IRIS 2019-4/5). In particular, the Commission referred Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Portugal to the CJEU for failure to notify...

The much-debated Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the DSM Directive), which impacts authors, online platforms and internet users, was due to be implemented in the EU by 7 June 2021. As a result of the COVID pandemic, which took up many resources, an election, and the long process of forming a new government (which was finally agreed in December 2022) Denmark was unable to meet this deadline. Denmark did however transpose part of the DSM Directive in time: The Danish Ministry of Culture had divided implementation of the DSM Directive into two parts. The first part...

A recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) walks the line between permissible political satire and unlawful sexist hate speech. The ECtHR found that the criminal conviction of a blogger for a series of cartoons that echoed sexist stereotypes amounted to a violation of the blogger’s right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The ECtHR concluded unanimously that the cartoons in essence referred to an ongoing political debate, criticizing the municipal leadership. In spite of the sexual stereotyping of one...

On 15 July 2022, the European Commission announced that it had sent reasoned opinions to Czechia for failure to provide information about the transposition of two copyright Directives, namely Directive 2019/789 on copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions (SatCab II Directive) (see IRIS 2019-5/3), and Directive 2019/790 on copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) (see IRIS 2019-4/5). Further, on 19 May 2022, the Commission sent reasoned opinions to 10 Member States (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland)...

In September 2021, the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (National Markets and Competition Commission — CNMC), the body that promotes and ensures the proper operation of all markets, issued three reports analysing the conditions proposed by the National Professional Football League (LNFP) for selling the broadcasting rights of the Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, known as La Liga, both in Spain and in international markets. In the case of Spain, the providers Movistar and DAZN have the broadcasting rights for this world renowned championship for...

On 23 September 2021, the Commission announced that it had sent a reasoned opinion to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia and Slovakia for failing to provide information about the implementation of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) into their national laws. This is a further step in the infringement procedure initiated in November 2020, when the Commission sent letters of formal notice to 23 Member States for not having notified full transposition (see IRIS 2021-1:1/25).   On the same date, the Commission announced that it had...

On 19 November 2020, Law No. 74/2020 was published in the Diário da República (Official Gazette); this new law transposes the Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 to the internal legal order, amending Law Nº 27/2007 of 30 July, which approves the Law on Television and Audiovisual Services on Demand, and Law 55/2012 of 6 September on the promotion, development and protection of cinema and cinematographic and audiovisual activities and works. In line with European Directive 2018/1808, the Portuguese Parliament...

On 23 November 2020, the European Commission announced that it had launched infringement procedures against 23 EU member states and the United Kingdom for failing to transpose the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2018 (AVMS Directive) (see IRIS 2019-1/3) into national law. The revised AVMS Directive was enacted in November 2018, and under Article 2, EU member states were required to incorporate the Directive into national law by 21 September 2020, and to notify the Commission of the text of the main provisions of national law which was adopted. However, the Commission stated that as...

On 19 May 2020, the Council of Ministers of Portugal approved a Resolution (Resolução do Conselho de Ministros nº 38-B/2020) establishing an exceptional and temporary measure involving the acquisition of advertising space for the diffusion of institutional actions, within the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Council of Ministers, the current pandemic has significantly increased the state's need for institutional advertising, namely in respect of hygiene and containment measures - that citizens are expected to follow. The need for institutional communication,...

On 23 March 2020, the Minister for Culture, Graça Fonseca, publicly announced contingency measures to support the arts, including the film and audiovisual sector. In an official message, Graça Fonseca stated that the more general emergency measures announced by the Prime Minister, António Costa, on the previous day were bound to have a transversal impact on all sectors and that they did apply to the cultural sector. To assist in clarifying all issues related to the applicability of these general measures to the arts and cultural sector, the ministry has prepared a website designed...

On 26 September 2019, the Portuguese Supreme Administrative Court overturned the state media regulatory body's decision on the exercise of the right of reply by a religious organisation. The court retained previous decisions from lower courts and maintained that the regulator had to force the private television broadcaster (TVI) to disseminate the organisation’s right of reply. The episode stemmed from a set of news items entitled “The secret of Gods”, in which the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God  (UCKG) was accused of having created an illegal network of child adoptions between Portugal...

Copyright protection does not apply when clothing design produces a specific aesthetic effect. That was the decision reached by the European Court of Justice on 12 September 2019 in respect of a dispute between two Portuguese companies (Judgment ECLI:EU:C:2019:721). The case involved two companies that design, produce and commercialise clothing: G-Star Raw CV and Cofemel - Sociedade de Vestuário SA. Cofemel is a dominant company in the textile sector in Portugal and had been accused by G-Star Raw CV of copying the design and model of its jeans, sweaters and T-shirts. In other words, G-Star Raw...

On 26 November 2018, the EU Commission initiated proceedings for infringement of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union against 17 member states for non-compliance with the Directive requiring the transposition into national law of the Marrakesh Treaty (Directive (EU) 2017/1564) (see IRIS 2017-9/4 and IRIS 2016-9/4). The Marrakesh Treaty is a WIPO-administered convention that was signed on 27 June 2013 and entered into force on 30 September 2016, after the first 20 ratifications. The Treaty facilitates access to print works in formats adapted for persons who are blind, visually...

Sir Cliff Richard OBE (Sir Cliff), a popular singer whose career spans over 50 years, was awarded damages and costs in the High Court of Justice against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for their infringement of his privacy during a South Yorkshire Police (SYP) investigation against him concerning an alleged historic sex crime which was not pursued. Mr Justice Mann presided over a twelve-day trial during which he balanced Sir Cliff’s right to privacy flowing from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) introduced into English law by the Human Rights Act 1998 (the Act)...

On 30 January 2017, at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, the Council of Europe opened for signature the new Convention on Cinematographic Co-production (the “Convention”). This instrument, adopted by the Committee of Ministers at the 1,261st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, sets out the rules under international law for when cinematographic co-productions involving producers from at least three States are undertaken (see IRIS 2016-10/3). One of the main developments of the Convention is that it grants flexible conditions for film producers in co-productions. Moreover, the Convention...

In a judgment of 22 March 2016 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Portugal has violated a journalist’s right to report about the hearing in a criminal case. The ECtHR emphasised that the domestic court hearing was public and that the criminal conviction of the journalist for having broadcast unauthorised recordings of the statements of witnesses during the hearing was not necessary in a democratic society. Therefore the journalist’s conviction amounted to a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The applicant in this case was Sofia...

In finding that there had been no violation of the right to privacy and the right to reputation, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) upheld a high level of freedom of expression in a case concerning a joke in a TV-programme about the sexual orientation of a television celebrity in Portugal. For the ECtHR it was important that the domestic courts, in dismissing the defamation complaint by Mr Sousa Goucha, took into account the context in which the joke had been made, and referred to the playful and irreverent style of the television comedy show and its usual humour. It also noted that Mr...

Procedures on the media coverage of elections in Portugal have been changed during the past year and had effect on recent elections, both legislative and presidential (on October 2015 and January 2016, respectively). Currently, the law on the media coverage of elections (no. 72-A/2015) stipulates as a general principle (Article 4) that, during elections, the media enjoy editorial freedom and freedom of programming. Amongst changes introduced is the exclusion of the relevance of political proposals for the choice of democratic alternatives as criteria for political representativeness in debates...

On 28 January 2015, the Competition Court upheld the Competition Authority’s (Autoridade da Concorrência - AdC) decision regarding the prohibition of the distribution of Sport TV shares between three Portuguese media companies. Controlinveste Media, NOS (the former Zon Optimus) and Portugal Telecom (PT) where planning this procedure, known as a “triangle operation”, designed to split the Sport TV capital stock. The strategy was to sell 25 per cent to NOS (of the 50 per cent that PT owns in Sport TV), while keeping the remaining 50 per cent under the purview of Controlinveste. Following this and...

The 67^th Cannes Festival provided an occasion for French cinema to develop its presence outside its national borders. Two conventions aimed at promoting French cinema worldwide were signed on 18 May 2014 by Aurélie Filippetti, Minister for Culture, and Fleur Pellerin, Secretary of State with responsibility for foreign trade. The first, signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development and the Centre national de la cinématographie et de l'image animée (National Centre of Cinematography - CNC), in conjunction with the Institut Français and Unifrance Film, involves...

On 16 December 2013, the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice published a decision (Ruling no. 15/2013, File no. 124/11.9GAPVL.G1 -A.S1, 3rd Section, dated 13 November) which states that additional speakers connected to a television in commercial public spaces, with the intention of amplifying the sound, do not constitute a new use of the work and therefore do not require further permission of authors. According to the decision, the use of autonomous sound expansion devices on radio or television is not a re-transmission of the broadcast work, meaning that it does not require an extra authorization...

Specific regulations implementing the new Law for Cinema and Audiovisual Media (see IRIS 2012-7/33) were published in the official news bulletin, Diário da República, and all the legal requirements detailed in these documents are in force since the end of February 2013. The law came into force in October 2012, though much of its content depended on the adoption of specific regulations. These regulations stipulate the fees applicable to operators in the field of investment in cinematographic and audiovisual production (referring to ICA, the Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Media),...

The Portuguese National Communications Authority (ANACOM) has announced the extension of the application period concerning the subsidy programmes for DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) decoders. Following this decision, applications can be submitted until 31 December 2012 to PT Comunicações, the global telecommunications operator leader in Portugal. There are two types of support programmes available, one for the installation of the reception system of DTH (Direct to Home) and the other for DTT kit reimbursement. On the one hand, reimbursements are of EUR 47 for anyone living in places where...

On 18 June 2012, the European Commission published its report on the Telecommunication services, based on the implementation of the revised EU Telecom Framework (see IRIS 2009-6/6, IRIS 2009-1/5 and IRIS 2010-1/7). According to the report, four member states still need to implement the framework into their national laws (Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia). The Commission assesses the work and functioning of the national regulatory authorities (NRAs), the revenues and investment of the electronic communications sector, the status of the broadband connection, the voice and other e-communication...

On 23 July 2012, the European Commission announced that it had written to Portugal, Slovenia, Finland (concerning the region of Åland) and the United Kingdom (concerning Gibraltar) to seek information on the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. In 2011, the European Commission had already sent fact-finding letters to twenty-four member states (including Finland and the United Kingdom). The European Commission is looking for clarifications on the following issues: the country of origin principle and jurisdiction issues; audiovisual commercial communications; the protection...

The list of public interest events that must be broadcast by national terrestrial open access television channels was published on 22 March 2012 in the official Portuguese news bulletin, Diário da República (2ª Série, nº 59, Parte C). Amongst the twelve topics that compose this list, seven specifically refer to football (matches from different championships, namely the Portugal Cup and the Europe League) and the other are related to other sport events: cycling (the Portuguese tour on bicycle around the country, which is called Volta a Portugal em bicicleta), hockey, handball and basketball both...

On 25 July 2011 the Portuguese government officially revoked the special rights it held in several publicly quoted companies, including the oil company Galp, the energy group EDP and the operator Portugal Telecom (PT). The government was under an obligation to revoke such rights as part of the terms of a EUR 78 billion plan to save the country from bankruptcy. The special rights given to the 500 action of category A (golden share) held by the Portuguese government were revoked by a vote in favour of 99% of the actionists present that day. A Golden Share is a position hold by the State in a company...