However, he admitted that “there are delegations in the country and abroad that are only viable or have much better working conditions for their professionals” with joint work, “operating with editorial independence”giving as an example a partnership, in Spain, between the EFE agency and TVE.
Regarding the proposal announced this Thursday by the PS, that it will present a bill to create an Independent General Council in Lusa, Leitão Amaro left a comment.
“I found it curious why present a proposal, when after decades in the Government, with total control over the administration of Lusa, they never remembered to create an Independent General Council”criticized.
Leitão Amaro defended the recent changes to Lusa’s statutes, considering that they “reduce the power of the Government”, by creating an advisory council “where Lusa workers, associations representing other media, representatives of the various national communities have seats, who monitor internally, listen to each other, and pronounce on the management”.
“Compared to the past, six months ago before these statutes, the Government had more power of control over Lusa than it has now. I, fortunately, never used it as others in the past did, and I don’t want to go back to that scenario”he stated.
Leitão Amaro insisted that “all changes to statutes degovernmentalize, limit the powers of the Government”.
“This was not done by any Government, by any PS when it was there. We are degovernmentalizing, but we are also strengthening Lusa’s capacity for action”these.
The minister also contested another criticism of the new statutes, arguing that Lusa will have “less exposure to parliament than RTP”.
“None of these people within parliament have ever questioned the RTP statutes, which say that the various RTP bodies go to parliament to report when called, or annually, out of obligation”he stated.
Leitão Amaro stated that the Government intends to “build a stronger Lusa agency”, capitalized with 5 million euros at the end of 2025, and the revision of the public service contract is being worked on. “in order to reduce the prices charged by Lusa to national, regional and local media”.
Lusa workers demonstrated this Thursday, in Lisbon and Porto, contesting the company’s restructuring process and the new governance model, in addition to the possible change of headquarters to RTP’s facilities.
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