The Left Bloc (BE) on Thursday, 4 December, pressed the Government for answers following a report in the Correio da Manhã newspaper that eight districts risk being left without print newspapers as early as next month, largely due to low purchases of papers over the counter.
At issue is a restructuring of delivery routes by the distributor VASP (owned by the Bel Group, a shareholder of the Global Media Group, which owns the Diário de Notícias). The company says that, given its “particularly demanding financial situation, resulting from the continued decline in print sales and the significant rise in operating costs,” it will no longer guarantee distribution in the districts of Beja, Évora, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Guarda, Viseu, Vila Real and Bragança.
In light of this, the Left Bloc’s sole MP, Mariana Mortágua, submitted a formal inquiry to the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro. In her letter, she argues that the decision will undermine “the right to information”, enshrined in Article 37 of the Constitution, a point VASP itself acknowledges.
Recalling the previous Government’s Action Plan for the Media, which included support for distribution in sparsely populated areas, Mortágua asks whether the current Executive is “aware” of the situation, what the status of the distribution-support measures is, and whether any action is planned to reverse the problem.
Back in September, at the first National Meeting of Press Points of Sale, VASP president Marco Galinha criticised the Government’s slow progress in rolling out distribution subsidies. He said the distributor had spent “a year trying to secure a support project for publishers to reach the country’s interior”. “But we’ve spent a year in meetings, meeting after meeting, and it all seems ever more distant. And VASP is not the Portuguese state. We do our duty, but we cannot replace the duties of the Portuguese state,” he said at the time.
As that same report noted, both VASP and the country’s main media groups had already requested an urgent meeting with the Government to push for “urgent measures” to prevent further deterioration. They also voiced concern over the Government’s repeated delays in launching “an international public tender for nationwide print distribution”.
If the scenario materialises, communities in inland districts will find their access to information severely restricted, relying solely on television, digital media, or radio. Moreover, many of these areas have no registered local or regional news outlets, making the situation even more acute.
According to a study by researchers from Labcom at the University of Beira Interior (UBI), the number of so-called “news deserts”, total or near-total, has worsened compared to their previous survey in 2022. In three years, the figure has risen from 78 to 83 municipalities. The Alto Alentejo region, which includes the district of Portalegre (one of the eight now at risk), is considered critical, with only nine registered media outlets serving a population of 109,000.
The study identifies Alentejo and Trás-os-Montes as the regions with the most severe information shortages.
The institute’s data also shows that 171 of Portugal’s 308 municipalities (55.5%) face some degree of weakness in local news coverage. This marks a slight deterioration compared with 2022, when the number stood at 166.
Source: DN
