Access to information is a challenge for Portuguese journalists, who, within a financially devastated media landscape, face increasing anti-press rhetoric fuelled by right-wing populists. Vânia Maia, an award-winning freelance Portuguese journalist, provides an overview of the most pressing media freedom challenges facing Portuguese journalists today.
Media freedom in Portugal faces a complex array of challenges, ranging from bureaucratic opacity and economic fragility to growing threats posed by disinformation and far-right movements. Despite the country’s robust legal framework, systemic issues—such as weak enforcement and underfunded media—continue to undermine journalists’ work. Legislative gaps leave reporters vulnerable to Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), while local and investigative journalism struggles with dwindling resources and expanding news deserts. Meanwhile, government reform plans for the media sector have raised concerns over sustainability and independence, as public broadcasting faces funding cuts and the governance model for the state-owned news agency remains unclear. As we will detail further, these interconnected pressures paint a sobering portrait of press freedom in Portugal, where the struggle for access to information offers a poignant entry point into the broader fight for media freedom in the country.
When Nuno Viegas recounts the numerous times he has taken public institutions to court over access to administrative documents, he could be mistaken for a seasoned attorney. In reality, he is a journalist at Fumaça, a digital investigative platform, with a hard-won expertise in navigating Portugal’s culture of bureaucratic opacity. Viegas describes the difference between requesting information from a Portuguese institution and a European one as “surreal.” “If I approach the European Commission, I’m confident I’ll receive a response within ten days. In Portugal, even if I request simple information, the most likely outcome is silence,” he states.
“There is a severe lack of democratic culture among public administration officials,” remarks António Granado, a professor at NOVA University Lisbon. Granado, who is also a journalist, attributes this entrenched opaqueness to the 48 years of dictatorship (1926–1974) Portugal endured. Public agencies are legally obliged to provide administrative documents and data upon request, whether from journalists or private citizens, but all too often, all journalists encounter is silence.
A critical ally in the battle for transparency is the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA), an independent body that operates alongside the parliament to ensure compliance with public access laws. Most complaints receive a favourable ruling from CADA and, although its decisions are non-binding, around 90% of CADA’s rulings are respected.
When CADA’s rulings are ignored, plaintiffs can turn to the courts—but by then, the delay in obtaining information often strips a story of its relevance. Moreover, CADA itself rarely resolves cases in less than two or three months. “Time is always on the side of the entities that refuse to provide information,” says Viegas, who has filed over 30 complaints with CADA.
João Paulo Batalha, an anti-corruption policy consultant, says that some institutions have realized there are few consequences for withholding information, as the laws do not sanction those who breach access rights. “Despite a broad right of access being enshrined, it is too frequently necessary to litigate against institutions,” laments Batalha.
Sérgio Pratas, a former legal advisor at CADA, believes that one of the main problems is that the vast majority of obligated organizations – mostly entities providing public services – have not appointed a Responsible for Access to Information (RAI), the designated person responsible for promoting information dissemination and overseeing access requests. At the moment, there are only 365 registered RAIs, representing less than 5% of the approximately eight thousand that should exist. The reason for this discrepancy is clear: the regulation on RAIs imposes no penalties for failing to appointment RAIs.
A recent example of the trend to limit access to information is that the Entity for Transparency (EpT) now requires further justification to consult a politician’s declaration of income, assets, interests, incompatibilities, and conflicts of interest. Luís Simões, president of the Portuguese Journalists’ Union, argues that for an accredited journalist, the only justification needed should be their status as a journalist, “in the name of press freedom.” Attorney Francisco Teixeira da Mota underscores the irony of the Entity for Transparency limiting transparency itself. “It’s a complete absurdity.”
Simply identifying oneself as a professional journalist needing access to the declaration is not sufficient. The EpT informed IPI that each application must “demonstrate, in reasonable and credible terms, the relationship of the request for consultation to the exercise of press freedom,” yet it declined to provide a specific example of a valid justification.
Beyond challenges in accessing information, other serious threats loom over Portuguese journalists.
Far-right targets
Whenever journalist, Pedro Coelho, shares his investigative work on social media, he knows the attacks will begin within seconds. It wasn’t always this way. Everything changed in 2020, after the SIC television reporter released an investigative series on the rise of the far-right in Portugal and Europe. Now, regardless of the topic he covers, he has become a target of violent online abuse, almost exclusively from the far-right. As a television reporter in a country where 53% of the population relies on TV as their main news source, Coelho is particularly exposed. The ongoing threats led the Public Prosecutor’s Office to open an inquiry after the International Press Institute released a statement documenting them in 2021. In November 2024, prosecutors finally charged two leaders of the right-wing populist party Chega (Enough) with aggravated threats and an attack on freedom of information. One of the party officials was also accused of illegal firearm possession.
Incidents involving the far right are increasing. In early 2024, a journalist from the weekly newspaper Expresso was forcibly removed from a student event featuring André Ventura, the founder of Chega party. Ventura frequently employs anti-media rhetoric. Last June he called the press “enemies of the people” after being questioned about his attempt to discredit an immigrant by manipulating a video. Social media accounts linked to Chega have mimicked credible media outlets to spread disinformation. A social media hoax reposted by a Chega-Azores politician about an alleged illegal Chinese fishing fleet in the Azores cost the Portuguese Armed Forces €45,000, to deploy an aircraft in a fruitless search for a non-existent fleet.
With 15 years of experience, five in Portugal, Brazilian journalist Amanda Lima has also endured coordinated online harassment for over a year. Lima, who specializes in migration, believes the intensity of the attacks stems from the combination of two factors: her expertise and her nationality. “Portuguese society is far more hostile to immigration today than it was five years ago, and xenophobia against me is also a significant factor,” she believes. As the editor-in-chief of the Brazilian edition of Diário de Notícias newspaper and a commentator on CNN Portugal, Lima faces a barrage of insults and threats, predominantly from conservative nationalist men. These attacks often carry a strong misogynistic undertone. Caricatures and AI-manipulated videos have been weaponized against her. Several threats are currently under investigation by Portugal’s criminal investigation police (Polícia Judiciária).
Prior to the 2024 elections, and unrelated to Chega or any other political party, researchers from ISCTE’s MediaLab detected, for the first time, “evidence of foreign interference in Portugal’s elections” through online ads accusing the two main political parties of corruption.
Battling SLAPPs and other legal obstacles
Investigative journalists are particularly exposed to legal intimidation, but in his 35-year career, Pedro Coelho reveals he has never encountered as much judicial harassment as he has from a donor of the Chega party, whom he identified in 2020. There were no factual missteps in his investigation, but that didn’t stop the donor from filing lawsuits both in Portugal and the USA against Coelho and other journalists who reported on him. This modus operandi fits with what is known as a SLAPP, or a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP), where a powerful individual or organization files a lawsuit primarily to silence or intimidate critics rather than to seek legitimate legal compensation. “This tool is insidious. You need time, money, and mental resilience to fight it,” Coelho acknowledges.
The European Union’s recently passed Anti-Slapp Directive 2024/1069, must be incorporated into national law by May 2026. João Paulo Batalha, an expert on anti-corruption, emphasizes the need to include judicial training. “Portugal has faced more than 30 convictions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for violating citizens’ freedom of expression,” he notes. “These rulings have prompted an evolution in national case law toward alignment with the ECHR. However, in cases that are unmistakably SLAPPs, the courts remain highly conservative.” With extensive experience litigating before the ECHR, Francisco Teixeira da Mota agrees that the ECHR has played a crucial role in shaping decisions by Portuguese courts. In October, the Portuguese Supreme Court acquitted two journalists previously fined for allegedly breaching judicial secrecy. The court cited ECHR case law in its decision, underscoring that the journalists’ reporting served a significant public interest.
Batalha argues that Portugal should use the transposition of the SLAPP directive to also decriminalize defamation, in line with European Commission recommendations. While Teixeira da Mota notes the practical advantage of keeping defamation as a crime— since courts may only decide in dubio pro reo in criminal proceedings—the lawyer believes that “decriminalizing words” is an important goal “both symbolically and culturally.”
Even more concerning than defamation laws are the restrictions placed on whistleblowers, which stem from the European whistleblower directive. Current legislation requires whistleblowers to exhaust internal reporting channels before making an external report, unless they face a violation that poses an imminent danger or is of clear public interest. Teixeira da Mota claims that whistleblowing should be expedited, given the high risk of retribution or inaction when reports are kept internal: “In some cases, going directly to the media is essential, as it’s the only way to prevent retaliation or suppression.” Additional restrictions limit whistleblowers to reporting only within the scope of their professional duties, and they must determine whether the violation falls under European legislation or is an offense punishable by a fine exceeding 50,000 euros. Teixeira da Mota sarcastically observes, “It seems a whistleblower would need a law degree just to file a report!”
Local Journalism
Based on Madeira Island, Filipe Gonçalves is acutely aware of the unique challenges facing local journalism. When asked about the most significant threat to press freedom in the archipelago, the RTP Madeira (public service television) reporter responds with a touch of defiance: “The press officers!”. The latest confrontation between journalists and authorities in Madeira unfolded during last summer’s wildfire coverage, when the Madeira branch of the Union of Journalists denounced a “climate of pressure and restrictions.” In August, journalists twice encountered blocked access to the parish of Curral das Freiras. The PSP (Public Security Police) claimed that the access restrictions were imposed at the request of Civil Protection. However, Gonçalves, who leads the Madeira Union of Journalists, disputes this. The union’s complaints gained national and even international attention—a development Gonçalves welcomes. “After so much media focus, I believe they will be more cautious next time they consider limiting journalists’ access,” he said.
Although Portugal is a small country—roughly one-fifth the size of its neighbour, Spain—over half of its territory (53.9%) is at risk of becoming, or already is, a news desert. These are areas that lack sufficient or consistent news coverage. “The presence or absence of media outlets directly impacts press freedom,” says Pedro Jerónimo, a researcher at LabCom/University of Beira Interior (UBI) and leading the news deserts mapping project in Portugal. “In areas without media, communities become more vulnerable to misinformation, hate speech, and populist messages.”
In need of solutions
Jerónimo and his team are already working on the next edition of Portugal’s news deserts map, but preliminary findings provide little cause for optimism—the situation has deteriorated since 2022. Nonetheless, the former local journalist remains hopeful that the Action Plan for the Media, presented by Portugal’s centre-right government in October, could improve the landscape. The new plan aims to ensure the distribution of periodicals in every municipality and to double the “prepaid postage” subsidy for local media, to cover 80% of shipping costs for subscribers.
The Action Plan for the Media, presented by the government and comprising thirty measures, emerges amid a deep crisis in the media sector. The ceremony was mired in controversy due to statements made by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who called for “a calmer media in the way it reports” and urged that it should be “not so breathless.” He also referred to “questions whispered through earpieces” to journalists, implying that they do not think for themselves.
The announcement that the public television service, RTP, will stop accepting advertising within three years — with a loss of about 10% of its revenue, with no compensation plan in place — sparked the most public debate. The opposition parties united to block the implementation of this measure as early as 2025. Portugal’s public television has one of the lowest funding levels in Europe and has not seen an increase in the Contribuição para o Audiovisual (audiovisual contribution), a mandatory fee included in electricity bills that supports public broadcasting services, since 2016.
The Journalists’ Union expressed concern over the underfunding of RTP and the future governance model of the national news agency, Lusa, which is now 95.86% state-owned. Miguel Poiares Maduro, a former minister in a government led by the main ruling party (PSD) who was responsible for establishing an independent supervision model for RTP, views the government’s plans to create a governance model that ensures the agency’s full editorial independence as very positive, although the details of the new model have yet to be clarified.
On the issue of media ownership transparency, Poiares Maduro, Dean of the Católica Global School of Law, believes that Portugal has perhaps the most advanced legislation among European states. However, the problem lies in its inconsistent application. The Global Media Group, the former owner of two iconic daily newspapers and a national news radio station (among other titles), was taken over by an international fund registered in the Bahamas that planned to lay off between 150 and 200 employees and failed to comply with its transparency obligations. It took the regulatory body, ERC, nearly a year to suspend the voting and ownership rights of these shareholders. “We need to understand why it took so long,” argues Poiares Maduro. ERC has already acknowledged that there are legal improvements to be made within the framework of media transparency, and the government has pledged to review the law in the near future. Portugal’s media ownership transparency law largely aligns with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). Only minor revisions may be needed, particularly to clarify whether the direct or indirect owners of a media outlet are themselves owned—directly or indirectly—by a state, public authority, or public entity.
Bankrupt landscape
Unsurprisingly, experts interviewed identify the economic vulnerability of the media sector in Portugal as one of the main threats to press freedom in the country. The online newspaper ECO analysed the financial results of 13 privately held media companies and found that only three reported positive results in 2023. This fragility manifests itself in various ways.
According to the report Monitoring Media Pluralism in the Digital Era: Portugal 2023, the risk of losing editorial independence due to commercial and ownership influence increased from 25% to 53%, marking the largest increase among all indicators compared to the previous year. Francisco Rui Cádima, a researcher at the NOVA Institute of Communication and co-author of the report, contends that “commercial logic plays a significant role here; on the other hand, self-regulation and co-regulation have weakened in recent years. It is the overall weakness of the industry that has created the conditions for precarity to spread from working conditions to practices, ethics, and the deontology of journalism.”
Poiares Maduro recognizes an additional danger: “There are certain media projects that lack even the slightest economic sustainability and seem to exist solely to shape the agenda. What sense does this make if there aren’t specific interests behind them?”, the professor questions, describing this as a “speculative concern.” Pedro Coelho, a professor at NOVA University Lisbon, shares this concern: “Dark interests seeking promotion can find an extraordinary platform in these instruments of public opinion, which are the media.” Coelho further asserts that investigative journalism in Portugal is very fragile, undermining the journalistic landscape. “If companies had stronger financial backing, there would likely be more space for investigative journalism.” Additionally, nonprofit journalism also suffers from a lack of funding, as there is no tradition of financing journalism through patronage.
Job precarity is a harsh reality in Portugal, where the starting salary for print journalists is below one thousand euros (€903), and not all companies comply with this legal obligation. On March 14, the Union of Journalists organized the first strike in more than forty years, with labour conditions at its core.
Portugal enjoys robust press freedom, as reflected in its impressive ranking of seventh on the 2024 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders. However, the country still faces significant challenges. Bureaucratic opacity greatly hampers the daily work of journalists, while threats from the far-right spectrum heighten insecurity among media professionals and erode public trust in the press. Although Portugal remains one of the European countries with the highest levels of trust in news, it fell from third to sixth place in the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024, ranking among 47 global markets.
Despite having a strong legal framework supporting media freedom, legislative adjustments are needed regarding SLAPPs, defamation laws, whistleblower protections, and media ownership transparency.
The most significant weakness of Portuguese media lies in its economic fragility, which makes it vulnerable to commercial interference and ownership influence. This fragility also manifests in the decline of local journalism, underfunded public broadcasters, and the struggle for the survival of investigative journalism.
In this context, the resilience of Portuguese journalists remains a critical force in upholding the democratic role of the press.
This article was commissioned as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism that tracks, monitors, and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.