Marcelo says ‘it’s time’ to reach ‘regime understanding’ on media

The President of the Republic said on Friday that “the time has come” to “reach an understanding between the regime” regarding the media when the Congress of Journalists takes place, arguing that “it is necessary to seek while there is still time” .

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke at the 38th Gazeta Awards, held on Friday at the Paços do Concelho in Lisbon, at an event that presented the situation faced by Global Media Group (GMG) journalists. in the speeches of the prize winners.

“The moment has come,” during the Congress of Journalists, “to reach agreements with the regime on this issue,” the head of state said. This is because “diagnoses are repeated, the situation gets worse and worse, then it is categorically incurable,” he continued.

“I am a realist, and realism dictates that no further delay can be made, that no solution be found at either the 42nd or the 44th Gazette Awards, “which may already be too late,” in which “Between them there were I don’t know how many journalists, I don’t know how many families of journalists, I don’t know how many news organizations, I don’t know how many forms of control are necessary for democracy,” emphasized Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.

He noted that the previous Congress of Journalists “was the first alarm signal” and that at this V Congress, which will be held from January 18 to 21, “it’s not bad, it’s very bad.” And “that’s a risk for democracy, as is the risk of not recognizing that a young democratic system can quickly resemble old systems,” he added.

According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, it is necessary to find cross-cutting formulas that will make “what is fundamental to democracy” viable.

“We need to look while there is still time, and next year we will find ourselves without these layoffs, without these non-payments of wages, without this uncertainty, in which no one is responsible – neither the owner, nor the manager, nor the financier, but not that one. No one with administrative responsibilities died alone due to their fault,” emphasized Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.

“So many things just need to be said [que] Journalists are responsible for this. This means they wanted to be journalists and chose the wrong path,” he concluded.

Lusa journalist Pedro Caldeira Rodríguez and Visan Miguel Carvalho received the Gazeta da Imprensa “ex aequo” award for the series of reports “Chove em Kiev” and the report “O Arm Armada do Chega” respectively.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Ana Souza Diaz. Amelia Moura Ramos was awarded the Gazeta de Televisão Prize, the Gazeta de Rádio was awarded to Paula Borges for “In the Art of Resistance – Mozambique Somos”, and the Gazeta de Multimédia Prize was awarded to Ines Rocha, author of the book “I wanted to know if the GDPR will work”, Gazeta award de Fotografia went to João Porfiriu and the Gazeta Revelação award went to Daniel Díaz.

Finally, the newspaper Gazeta de Imprensa Regional, appointed by the leadership of the Club of Journalists (CJ), transferred to the Mensageiro de Bragança, the regional diocesan weekly founded on January 1, 1940 and created as a means of communication with Tras-os. -Montes community living in the city, in other areas of the country and abroad.”