The Disciplinary Board (CD) of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) said on Thursday that it is not considering punishing the SportTV journalist who questioned Sporting coach Rúben Amorim about striker Islam Slimani.
“The CD was obliged by the rules of the League’s rules to initiate disciplinary proceedings, as it was included in the deputy’s report, but it does not consider punishing the journalist,” said an official source from the FPF CD.
According to the same source, it was decided to make the process “urgent” and to clarify “an apparent constitutional non-compliance” with the rule of the competition rules.
The Journalists’ Union on Wednesday (31) considered the trial presented to a journalist by the FPF-CD as “an attack on press freedom”, for a question to Sporting coach Rúben Amorim.
The lawsuit, filed on August 30, took place after a journalist from the SportTV channel, in the quick interviews section, made a statement at the end of the game between Sporting and Desportivo de Chaves (0-2) for the I Football League. asked question. to the coach of the ‘lions’ “from the context of the match that had just ended,” the association explained in a statement.
The question, posed in the quick interview section, related to former Sporting player, Islam Slimani.
Lawyer speaks of unconstitutionality of the process
This trial by the Disciplinary Board of the Portuguese Football Association against the SportTV journalist is unconstitutional, defends lawyer Jorge Bacelar Gouveia at the Lusa bureau.
“I think it is clearly unconstitutional, as it violates the essential core of press freedom. This restriction in the regulation is disproportionate to the purpose it seeks to protect, which is to avoid expressive questions that go beyond discussion in conversation . That was made quickly and at the end of the game,” argued law professor, lawyer and constitutionalist Jorge Bacelar Gouveia.
“Just because the rules say you can only ask questions about the game doesn’t mean the journalist can ask other questions. In fact, there are many questions that transcend the game and have to do with the state of the team and the players sold. or bought. The rule is too tight and disproportionate to the logic of sports journalism. The journalist also asks some questions outside the game and this has not been a problem until now,” explains Jorge Bacelar Gouveia.
“The journalist is not a sports agent. I admit that he can submit to some rules established by the sports area he enters, especially in a flash interviewbut not with this violence and seriousness,” admitted Jorge Bacelar Gouveia.
The Disciplinary Board of the FPF can be immediately sanctioned in a concise process and understood “that a disciplinary procedure should be instituted”, so that, through a more detailed reflection, a need for correspondence between the protection of sports values and the protection of freedom of expression “.
“The FPF does not have to see journalists as sports agents, because they are not, but as media agents, who have a very important role, which is to inform people who do not limit the essential core of their press freedom,” concluded the lawyer.
The Journalists’ Union on Wednesday deemed the trial “an attack on press freedom”, finding it strange the “apparent lack of democratic sensitivity” of the FPF Disciplinary Board and the “manifest illegality” of the LPFP rules.
The SJ revealed that it will “report this fact to the Public Prosecution Service for proper purposes”, the SJ expressed solidarity with the journalist in question in light of “a very serious form of censorship that is absolutely forbidden in the Portuguese legal system”, which he believes may constitute “an illegal act of a criminal nature”, such as “attacks on press freedom”.
On the same day, the Association of Sports Journalists (CNID) deemed the decision “absurd” and stressed that professionals “cannot be investigated by any board of a federation or league, nor by any club”, while the Portfolio Commission Professional Journalist (CCPJ) today rejected the stance of the FPF Disciplinary Board, led by Cláudia Santos, in “illegally opening” the trial.
Culture Minister Pedro Adão e Silva said he was “following with great concern” a topic “which restricts freedom of the press and calls into question the basic tenets of the constitution”, and calls for a reconsideration of the position of the federated disciplinary organ.
Source: DN
