"It's time to wake up to a public accountability" in the face of a media crisis, the President of the Republic said last night at the close of a conference on media financing.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa suggested that the State should by 2020 apply at least some experimental measures to support the media. "It is time to agree on a governmental responsibility, if not by 2020, tentatively waiting for a proper strategy and overall vision for the coming years," said the President. He was speaking at the closing of the conference which was promoted by the Union of Journalists, in response to an appeal from him and with his sponsorship. The event took place at the Cidadela Palace in Cascais.
The head of state gave an example of the support measures in place in other European countries, which regard the media as a fundamental pillar of democracy that play a large role in calling for greater citizen intervention, since “either civil society acts or the public authorities will not feel the urgency to act, since the invocation of budgetary limits is eternal, whereas there are more obvious limits to social areas sensitive to the common citizens, such as health, security, poverty, and education ”.
“Everything that civil society can want, encourage and raise, can be helped by media groups. This includes the mobilization of patronage for petition signatures, motivating support to causes, civic action, and public campaigns. It must all be welcome,” said the president.
And as for those "who think they escape the media’s eye and its effects of any kind," the President of the Republic argued that their corrupt action "will not escape". The head of state also asked, in front of a room full of journalists and media directors, to not to make the “mistake of keeping quiet, and hiding signs of crisis” in Portugal, nor “to adhere to the inertia of taking as a natural the corruption of civil society and public authorities” and, on the contrary, to continue “to raise the issue, always, and to support all the ways complementary to its overcoming”.
