The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Wednesday that all politicians should “learn to accept criticism”, also ascribing this duty to himself, and advised to reject “the speech of democratic lamentation”.
The head of state spoke at the Lisbon City Council, during the Gazeta 2021 Awards ceremony, in an intervention in which he expressed himself “more optimistic” about the situation of journalism in Portugal than in previous years.
“This time I’m more optimistic. I’m more optimistic because the last thing we can do is the speech of Democratic lamentation. Let’s not do this favor to those who love democracy less than they should,” he appealed.
Without citing a specific event, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that “democracy is built positively” and added: “Everyone has to learn this, politicians have to learn to accept criticism, I have to learn to accept criticism, we all have to learn to accept criticism”.
The President of the Republic pointed to these journalistic awards as “an affirmation of hope” and defended that “where there is no very, very strong media, there is no very, very strong democracy”.
In his opinion, “it is seen here in these awards, it is seen year after year” that Portugal “has the conditions to have very, very strong social communication”.
“Ah, but there’s another social communication that isn’t quite the one we want, which is stuck in the scum of the day. But the scum of the day can bring structural concerns,” he noted.
At the end of his speech, the head of state exclaimed: “The struggle continues, democracy is alive”.
Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas also spoke at this ceremony in the main hall of City Hall.
The Gazeta Awards are an initiative of the Clube de Jornalistas. This 37th edition had the main support of the Lisbon City Council and the Associação Mutualista Montepio.
Award-winning Global Images photojournalist
At the gala, Global Imagens photojournalist Reinaldo Rodrigues was awarded the Gazeta Multimedia Prize for his work Um Outro País (pictured above, presented by Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas) yesterday.
The work is a set of 31 reports with as many stories of people who decided to change their lives and seek personal fulfillment in interiors.
Performed after a challenge in a classroom at the Escola Superior de Comunicação Social (Lisbon), they helped to show the other face of a country stricken by desertification to the lack of territorial cohesion.
Source: DN
