Search results : 103

The recently elected centre-right government, led by Prime Minister Durão Barroso, has clarified its intention to cut down on public broadcasting. The Programme of the XV Constitutional Government, approved by the Portuguese Parliament on 17 April 2002, states that Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP, S.A.) will be split into two companies. The Government holds that one will remain State-owned, keeping the present broadcasting licence and public service commitments; as yet it has not put forward any plans regarding the future of the other. Public service radio will also be restructured; of the four...

On 4 October 2001, the Alta Autoridade para a Comunicação Social (High Authority for the Media) issued for the first time a negative statement regarding the appointment of a General Director to the public service television company, Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP). According to Article 4 of Lei da Alta Autoridade para a Comunicação Social (Law nº 43/98 of 6 August), the nomination of the Director General of RTP requires a prior, reasoned and public judgment by the High Authority for the Media. In its statement, the High Authority considered that the changes in the functions of the new Director...

Under the aegis of the Alta Autoridade para a Comunicação Social (the Authority for the Media), the Portuguese national broadcasting operators (RadioTelevisão Portuguesa, Sociedade Independente de Comunicação and Televisão Independente) have signed a self-regulatory protocol in order to safeguard human dignity in television programming. The document had been discussed for quite some time, but it was only on 18 September 2001 that the presidents of all of the television companies' boards agreed to sign it. In the first clause of the agreement (which has a total of seven clauses), the operators...

On 16 May 2001, following a highly controversial episode in a reality show, the Alta Autoridade para a Comunicação Social (the High Authority for the Media) decided to take a stand on the issue. On 15 May 2001, during prime time, the private terrestrial channel Sociedade Independente de Comunicação (SIC) broadcast an emotional row between a contestant in Bar da TV (a "Big Brother" type of programme) and her parents. Shocked by erotic behaviour in Bar da TV, the parents of a female contestant, Margarida, asked the production team to let them talk to their daughter. The live broadcast of a tearful...

On 7 April 2001, the Portuguese Government opened the bidding process for a digital terrestrial television platform. The regulation for the public bidding was published in Diário da República (Official Journal of Portugal). According to this regulation, applications may be submitted to the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (the Portuguese communications regulatory body) until 15 June 2001. The proposals shall be open, heard in public and evaluated by a special commission appointed by the Government. The result of the bidding process will be announced by 6 August 2001. The opening of the bidding...