Chega proposes the parliamentary hearing of the board of directors of RTP and the media regulatory body (ERC) after the broadcast on the public channel of a ‘cartoon’ referring to the police and racism
According to a request released this Monday by the party and addressed to the Commission for Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports, Chega also wants to hear the Independent General Council of RTP and requests that these hearings take place urgently.
The ‘cartoon’ by Cristina Sampaio, collaborator of the Spam Cartoon collective, shown weekly on RTP, is called ‘Shooting career’ and shows a police officer firing at the target with increasing intensity. At the end it shows the targets, which got darker as the policeman was aggressive, which serves as a metaphor for the theme of racism in the security forces.
Chega considers this an “innuendo that the police are racist” and has “the clear intent to defame and incite hatred of the police”.
“Taking into account that RTP is public television, the television of all Portuguese, the matter becomes even more serious and it is imperative to determine the responsibilities for the broadcast of the ‘cartoon’,” he defends.
On Saturday, the PSP’s National Union for the Career of Chiefs (SNCC) announced that it had filed a criminal complaint against the authors of the ‘cartoon’ and also against RTP for releasing it, as “there is an unequivocal intent to defaming and portraying all police officers as xenophobic and racist”.
Contacted by Lusa, the illustrator André Carrilho, co-founder, together with João Paulo Cotrim, of Spam Cartoon – responsible for the “cartoon” in question – considered that the complaint “is nonsensical” since the “cartoon” has nothing to do with the PSP or with the Portuguese reality”.
“We have been working for RTP since 2017 and the ‘cartoon’ is always made in the context of national and international current events, in this case international. It has to do with the event in France of the death of a young Frenchman. police which later led to several riots across the country,” explained André Carrilho.
In turn, an official RTP source told Lusa that “Spam Cartoon is a free opinion exercise on national and international current affairs that RTP has been organizing since 2017”, written by “some of the most recognized Portuguese cartoonists”.
“It has in no way served to incite violence against anyone. The values of freedom of expression and expression are fundamental to RTP’s democracy and public service,” the television channel stressed.
Also on Saturday, the PSD questioned RTP’s board of directors about the same ‘cartoon’, as it “clearly and unfortunately tarnishes the image and good name” of police institutions.
The next day, the chairman of the CDS-PP criticized the interior minister for not defending the honor of the police after the ‘cartoon’ was aired.
Source: DN
