Ética Periodística a Principios del Siglo XXI - Monitorando

without powers to do so (Bernardo Bairrão, in the case). Considering that the
Newsroom Council has competence to rule on all sectors of life which relate to the
exercise of the journalists’ activity in accordance with their status and deontology code
(article 23, point e) of the Press Law, cit. in ERC, 2009: p. 16), its consultation could
have been a form of vitality, protection and internal pluralism, as it is supposed to be.
Also deontology was diminished, as stressed by members of the Regulatory Council
(idem: p. 15):
In terms of deontology, the guarantee of independence is not only seen as
a right but also as a duty to be observed at all times of activity, especially by
those who have the mission of coordinating the production of information for
public broadcasting and should be particularly likely able to ensure its
independence in a space, like journalism, to were converge tensions and
attempts o influence from agents of various social fields (political, economical,
cultural...).
Regarding TVI’s pronunciation to ERC, note that this enterprise recognizes
Newsroom Councils’ importance in spite of the fact that these constitute a mere
organizational tool for the exercise of fundamental rights, which unavoidably overlap
actions or omissions of each journalistic structure (ibidem: p. 17). The purpose of this
work is not, however, to accuse or justify TVI’s administration for the nonexistence of
this crucial body for the wealth and prosecution of journalists’ rights. The focus here is
another one. There is not a Newsroom Council and this could have triggered a different
outcome to the case. Once verified its absence, the case originated ERC’s intervention
analyzed in the next section.
4. HETERO-REGULATION: THE STATE MEDIA REGULATORY
ENTITY
The regulator in the Portuguese context has legal protection and occurs, above
all, as a constitutional imperative since 1976, as former minister Augusto Santos Silva 69
69 Augusto Santos Silva developed, as minister, the XVII Constitutional Government’s initiative to realize ERC’s
model, deriving from 2004’s constitutional revision of 2004 and from Law no. 53/2005 of November 8,
2005(creating ERC).
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