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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...

The Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (Portuguese State Media Regulatory body, ERC) approved, on 22 March 2016, the final wording of the regulations on the transparency of the main funding sources of media companies, as well as on their annual corporate governance reporting. The Regulations (no. 348/2016) were published in the official news bulletin on 1 April 2016. This document complies with Articles 5 and 16 of the Law on transparency of ownership, management and funding of media companies (no. 78/2015), since it establishes: 1) that the ERC is responsible for receiving information...

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 30 July 2015, the Secretary of State for Culture announced that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed by a number of organisations, in order to create a self-regulatory agreement on the protection of copyright in the digital environment. These organisations included two public bodies - the ministry of culture’s Inspector General of Cultural Activities (Inspecção Geral das Actividades Culturais) and the Consumer Directorate General (Direção-Geral do Consumidor) - and a number of other organisations, including the telecommunication operators association (Associação dos Operadores de Telecomunicações),...

The Portuguese Government will abolish the Office for Media (Gabinete para os Meios de Comunicação Social - GMCS) at the end of the year, as determined by Law Decree no. 24/2015 of 6 February 2015. The date has been settled, while the transfer of responsibilities assigned to this body to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers will take place on 31 December. The plan is to keep part of the Office’s team members (currently approximately 30 persons) in a smaller unit near the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to continue advising the Government on media issues. The...