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The media landscape in Portugal

For many years media censorship was rife in Portugal. The decisive turnaround came with the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974. But although it heralded the end of censorship, many newspapers that had been close to the government were then taken over by the state. Reprivatisation only came at the end of the 1980s, together with the slow opening of broadcasting to private investors.

Lissabon Panorama
Foto: Pedro Moura Pinheiro, Lizenz: Creative Commons by-nc-sa/2.0

Private television was introduced in 1992. Alongside the channels of the RTP which remains publicly owned, there are now also two freely accessible private stations, SIC and TVI. Traditionally the Catholic Church maintains a large influence primarily in the radio sector: its stations RFM and Rádio Renascença have the largest broadcast reach.

In general newspapers are used less widely than the electronic media. Newspaper density is low, a fact that is also explained by the relatively high rate of illiteracy - more than ten percent - compared with the rest of Europe. Nevertheless the key medium in the country remains the weekly magazine Expresso, founded in 1973 under the old regime. Stressing from the start background reportages and a broad spectrum of opinion, the politically independent magazine led a tenacious struggle with the censorship authorities until the end of the dictatorship. This style of journalism also influenced quality daily newspapers like Público – founded in 1990 by former Expresso editors – and the well-established Diário de Notícias. For this reason one can hardly speak of a clear ideological line among the national papers. Regional papers play next to no role whatsoever.

The free papers are giving the established print media a serious run for their money, at least as far as advertising goes. This trend is only partly countered by the established papers' online presence. By and large blogs only play a role on the online versions of newspapers. Larger media holdings with predominantly local capital and multimedia focus tend to dominate media and newspaper ownership, although the market is currently undergoing further concentration.

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