Portugal

[PT] New Media Regulatory Body Proposed

IRIS 2005-7:1/28

Luís António Santos

Departamento de Ciências da Comunicação, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho

The Portuguese government has presented to Parliament a proposal for a Law to create a new media regulatory body. Given the Socialist Party's absolute majority in the Chamber the project, which is now under discussion, should be approved without significant changes.

The new media regulatory entity will - according to the proposal - be composed of a five member regulatory council (four of them to be nominated by Parliament) article 14, an executive board (where two of its three members will be the president and the vice-president of the regulatory council) article 32, and a fiscal member (also nominated by Parliament) article 34. Its income will result from a combination of sources: national budget provision, taxes to be charged to media operators, fines, and “any other subsidies or financial support provisions” (article 45, g).

The Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (Media Regulatory Entity) will in effect replace the High Authority for Media (thus revoking Law 43/98 of 6 August 1998) and it is presented by the government as the first step towards an all-encompassing reform of the media regulation sector. Announcing this proposal to Parliament, the Portuguese minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, has also put forward the proposed creation of two new figures - a viewers' ombudsperson and a listeners' ombudsperson -, whilst indicating his intention to present to Parliament, before the end of 2005, a new radio law, a new television law, and revisions of the public service concession contract with RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), the journalists entitlement regulation, and the incentives system for local and regional media.


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This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.