Ética Periodística a Principios del Siglo XXI - Monitorando

Taking into account these considerations, João Maia Abreu could have denied
the order reported in a meeting rather than accepting and immediately resign. For this
could have contributed the existence of a self-regulatory mechanism in the newsroom,
for the sake of greater freedom and autonomy of its professionals. These topics will be
examined in detail in subsequent paragraphs.
3. ON THE COMPULSORY NEWSROOM COUNCILS
As previously mentioned, there is not a Newsroom Council at the private
broadcaster´s newsroom. However, its existence is underlined by the Portuguese
Constitution (article 38, no. 2, paragraph a). This sort of organism allows journalists to
intervene in the editorial orientation of media companies and has a wider inclusion in
the Portuguese system (see article 54 no. 5 point b) of the same law, which confers the
same right to employees in general). Bearing in mind this dual protection, note its
presence in other laws: article 13 of the Journalists’ Statute, article 38 of the Television
Law and article 23 of the Press Law. We can also find in the Constitution of the
Portuguese Republic (article 39) reference to an independent administrative body to
exercise regulation in a strict sense (SILVA, A. S., 2007: p. 17), however, this form of
regulation does not replace and cannot be confused with self-regulation or coregulation.
In this topic we approach a form of the concept of regulation: self-regulation
as the regulation assumed and exercised by the media on their own initiative and under
their responsibility (idem: p. 18) 68 .
Newsroom Councils arise in the course of participation and autonomy
imperatives, according to JOAQUIM FIDALGO’s words:
It means that the employer of these companies has, due to the social
sensibility of their activity, limits to his "property right" more strict than in other
spheres, forcing him (at least in theory) to share with journalists the decisions of
professional and editorial matters that may constrain or affect their work (...)
(2009: p. 385).
68 FIDALGO, J. (2009: pp. 385-410) defines and describes in detail the portuguese formulations of self-regulation, in
which includes the Newsroom Council, the Book of Style, the Newsroom’s Statutes/Internal Codes, the
Deontological Code, the Deontological Council, the Press Council, the Readers Letters, the Public Tribune, Media
Critics/Metajournalism and the Ombudsman.
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