“A grotesque, perverse and ill-disguised attempt by the regional government of PSD-A, CDS-A, PPM-A, with the support of CHEGA-A and IL-A, to control the private media in the Azores”.
The accusation comes from Vasco Cordeiro, leader of the PS/Azores, who considers José Manuel Bolieiro’s program for the private press as a “poisoned gift” it is from “deadly attack”deliberately”obsessive”want”control over everything and everyone in the Azores”.
“What the current regional government has done, and wants to do even more, is take advantage of the economic fragility of private media companies and offer them a poisoned gift. First, she has delayed a vaunted reform of the legislature until the last year. these subsidies, which created doubt and uncertainty, and subsequently postponed the payment of the subsidies due under the law medium, including spreading the payment over several years. Finally, after exacerbating the financial vulnerability of these companies in this way, it now presents the payment of salaries, or part of the salaries, to journalists as a miraculous solution. This is politically grotesque and is yet another example of the regional government’s growing obsession with wanting to control everything and everyone in the Azores.”, accuses the former president (from 2012 to 2020) of the regional government.
For the socialist parliamentary leader in the Legislative Assembly, “these are parties [PSD-A, CDS-A, PPM-A, Chega-A e IL-A] they preach freedom, they preach the fight against subsidies, they preach the de-government of the society of the Azores, but what we see, through the action of some and the complicity of others, is the exact opposite. It is a growing and obsessive control over everything and everyone,” he says.
O plan of the government of José Manuel Bolieiro, highlighted by the Portugueseprovides for the payment of 40% of the salary, up to EUR 1500, of journalists hired indefinitely in the fields of production, editing and dissemination of information content, and 20% of the salaries of journalists hired for a fixed period of time hired or on a service basis.
The Media+ program, which contains the medium – The Regional Program to Support Private Social Communication, created in 2006 when the regional government was led by the PS, has already led Carlos César, President of the Socialists, who rarely talks about regional politics, to criticize Bolieiro, who classified the words as “nonsense”. by Vasco Cordeiro.
“If I were a journalist I wouldn’t want that kind of support; and if I were a businessman or employee in this or any other sector of public interest activity and did not deserve such support, I should not be satisfied. [Bolieiro] since taking office he does not seem to accept any criticism from the opposition on any subject. He almost always does it with unwarranted and obnoxious haughtiness, or he has other, even less subdued protagonists do it.says Carlos Cesar.
The leader of the Azores’ executive, who is also a national leader of the PSD (he is part of the National Political Commission), stated that Vasco Cordeiro’s words “have no qualification other than nonsense. It is nonsense” , and justifies that “There is also consensus on the proposal among the Union of Journalists and many media owners. It was a construction of a multiple project and with the participation of the recipients themselves”.
However, the Azores delegation of the Union of Journalists guarantees this “is not reflected in the adopted wording, as the released document mainly reflects the intentions expressed by the employers” is that “the Union has never suggested that the regional government grants direct aid to journalists’ salaries”.
Carlos César therefore concludes that Bolieiro “when he makes a mistake, he blames the previous regional government or the current government of the republic. When contradicted, he never accepts that the reason may not even be entirely his own”. And in this case, he insists, they want “every journalist’s salary” “in the Azores to be partially paid by the PSD-A/CDS-A/PPM-A government.”
For the socialists of the Azores, it is necessary to know what Luís Montenegro, national leader of the PSD, thinks about crossing “very dangerous (…) this red line”, which is “a clear risk to the freedom of journalists” .
Since this is not a “minor matter of a regional government’s policy”, the PS challenges Montenegro to say so or “it’s this kind of view of support for the media that the media will one day have if there ever is a government”.
Asked by DN about this issue, Livre also assumed he disagreed with this solution: “That journalism is going through difficulties is clear, as is the need for stability and predictability in the lives of these professionals, always ensuring the independence of journalists in relation to power,” an official party source said in a note. “There are other models that can and should be studied while preserving the independence of journalists, such as a regional press support fund, which is run independently of government and with predictable, transparent funds and effective volume to support the regional press .”
The already national PSD, Il, Chega, BE or PAN, who were also questioned by the DN about whether or not they agree with this proposal that the PS considers “grotesque”, reacted in a timely manner. As for the PCP, it will not comment until it knows the diploma, which continues to go to the Azores’ Council of Government and then to the regional parliament.
Source: DN
