The Journalists’ Union (SJ) accused this Sunday (April 12) the mayor of Coimbra, Ana Abrunhosa, of violating press freedom by attacking a journalist from the Lusa agency, calling into question his independence and professionalism.
At issue are statements by the mayor, on Friday, at the Coimbra City Council executive meeting, which journalist João Gaspar follows regularly.
“The mayor accused the reporter of “failing to tell the truth” and of “serious and systematic ethical failures”, says the SJ in a statement in which it considers “unacceptable” attitudes such as “the attempt to remove the journalist from covering the municipality, the pressure on the Lusa agency to remove him from these functions, the limitation of his access to public meetings and information sources, as well as his deliberate exclusion from the institutional contact list”.
After the mayor claimed to “remove the trust” of the journalist, the SJ clarified that “journalists do not need the trust of the mayor of Coimbra or any other mayor to do their work”.
For the union, “these behaviors constitute objective and materialized attacks on press freedom, translating into real restrictions on the exercise of journalistic activity”.
In other words, “practices are incompatible with the democratic rule of law and can constitute serious offenses, as they violate the right of access to information and the free exercise of the profession of journalist”, constitutionally enshrined, added the SJ.
In a democratic regime, “news is challenged by its own means — with clarifications or the right to reply — and never through attempts to condition, intimidate or silence media professionals”, highlights the SJ
The SJ also criticizes Ana Abrunhosa’s actions for the “clear attempt to publicly discredit a journalist in the exercise of his duties, seeking to limit democratic scrutiny of local political power”. Something that “is not only unacceptable, but must be denounced and stopped firmly”, he stressed.
For the SJ, this is “a serious precedent and a worrying sign of the degradation of the relationship between political power and the media”, which calls into question “fundamental pillars of democracy”.
In an open letter, the management of ProPress – Portuguese Association of Journalists also questions the mayor of Coimbra for his statements in a public event, “without the journalist, present at the session, being able to defend himself against the accusations”.
ProPress recalled that “the legitimacy of the vote does not legalize or legitimize everything, nor does it allow attitudes of I can, I command and I want”, as can be read in the letter that points out the “independence [como] one of the most essential conditions for professional practice, without supervision from public authorities, including local authorities and their holders”.
The association recognizes “the right to criticism, rectification and formal complaint to regulatory authorities and the courts”, but not “the right to crucify in the public square” of journalists who are “the first interested in scrutinizing the exercise of their profession, especially those who do not respect the rules”.
For the association, “statements and actions of this type, intimidating, limiting access, exceeding legal determinations, restricting the freedom and independence of journalists, cannot be acceptable”.
In the text, the journalists guarantee that they “will not take away the trust” of the mayor because that is not their responsibility, but will continue to do what is in fact their responsibility: “ask her all the questions, as a duty and as a right”.
On Friday, the Lusa agency’s Information Department wrote a letter to the mayor of Coimbra “repudiating accusations” that it addressed to João Gaspar, at the executive’s public meeting.
In a statement, DI considered that the accusations made by the mayor elected in the PS/Livre/PAN coalition were “unreasonable, unfounded and defamatory” and reiterated its confidence in João Gaspar, “whose journalism career in Lusa is irreproachable”.
Among the accusations, Ana Abrunhosa stated that the journalist failed to tell the truth in a piece of news, accusing him of a “serious deontological failure”, accusing him of having his own “political agenda”, and therefore taking away trust in the journalist.
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