Portugal

[PT] Council of Ministers Approves Events of General Interest

IRIS 2011-2:1/33

Mariana Lameiras & Helena Sousa

United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV) & Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho

On 28 October 2010, the minister responsible for the media sector, Jorge Lacão Costa, approved the list of events that must be considered to be of general public interest. This communication (Despacho nº 16552-A/2010) was published in the official Portuguese bulletin on 29 October 2010 and states that these events must be broadcast by national terrestrial open access television channels only. This means that those who buy the exclusive rights for the transmission of these events should provide access through open access channels. As stated in the Television Act (Act 27/2007 of 30 July 2007, Article 32), the government member responsible for the media sector holds the responsibility for annually publishing the list of events that cannot be broadcast by non-national restricted access channels.

The list comprises sports events only, especially football. Six out of nine items are related to professional football, whether national championships or European games. The remaining events concern other sports namely cycling, hockey, handball and basketball on a national level (such as the Portuguese bicycle tour around the country called Volta a Portugal em bicicleta) or in an international framework (such as the participation of Portuguese athletes in European or World championships).

Before the publication of this annual list, the government has the legal duty of consulting the Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (media regulatory authority - ERC) on the matter.