On Tuesday, the PS asked the Social Communications Regulator (ERC) to indicate the funding and share capital of Global Media’s new shareholder structure, stressing that “little or nothing is known.”
In a request addressed to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, the PS emphasizes that “it is common knowledge that significant changes are taking place in the shareholder structure of Global Media,” noting that businessman Marco Galinha confirmed that the Bel Group has sold part of this “holding” that owns Diário Notícias, TSF and Jornal de Notícias, a foundation “about which little or nothing is known.”
“With this sale, Global Media’s shareholder structure is undergoing changes, the extent of which and the impact on the various media companies within the group are currently unknown,” said the document, signed by the PS group vice-president, a parliamentarian. Rosario Gamboa, responsible for culture and social communications, and the president of the parliamentary committee for culture, socialist Luis Graça.
Socialist MPs state that, simultaneously with the change in the shareholder structure, there have been “several changes in the management model of TSF: the dismissal on September 11 of the editorial director Domingos Andrade and the appointment on October 2 of Rui Gómez to the above-mentioned position, without the TSF editorial board having been heard” as this provided by law.
PS recalls that the Constitution and law provide that the ERC Regulatory Council is responsible for “making determinations in accordance with the law on the acquisition of property or the practice of approval of organizations engaged in media activities.”
Socialist MPs must also “begin to define the powers to influence public opinion with a view to protecting pluralism and diversity” and “take the necessary measures to protect them.”
In this context, the PS requests the ERC Regulatory Council to provide “elements at its disposal” to ascertain “the list of holders, whether for their own account or on behalf of others, who benefit from the shares in the authorized capital of the new shareholder structure of Global Media”, and also “relevant participation percentages”.
The PS also wants the ERC to clarify what are the “shares of those holders in legal entities that own direct or indirect shares in other media”, as well as “the means of financing and share capital of the new shareholder structure”.
On August 4, businessman Mario Galinha confirmed to Lusa that the Bel group sold part of Global Media to the Swiss fund Union Capital Group (UCAP Group). Shortly thereafter, on August 15, Expresso newspaper reported that ERC had asked the Global Media group to indicate which new shareholders had entered into the group’s capital.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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