In 2022, Portugal occupied the 7th position between 32 countries and in 2024 is in 11th position
Portugal descended nine percentage points in the monitoring of media pluralism in the European Union (MPM), falling from 7th place in 2022, first edition of the evaluation, to 13th position in 2025.
In this year’s edition, Portugal appears in 13th position among the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) and equals, in this matter, the average of the EU (49%), with an “medium-low risk”, while in 2022 the country registered an index of 40%.
For the author and researcher of the ICNOVA Diversity and Pluralism Observatory, Rui Cadima, the main reason for this fall “is the growing tendency of aggravation of the economic sustainability of the media sector,” he told Lusa.
Rui Cadima emphasizes the existence of “fragile newsrooms, much pressured by precariousness, placing editorial freedom in question and research journalism as the first victim,” adding “increasing difficulty in filtering the misinformation and information of multiple intermediates, despite the emergence of ‘fact-chicken’.”
The first place in the index, developed by the Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom to evaluate the risks to media pluralism, are Germany (28%) and Sweden (28%), followed by Denmark (31%) and the Netherlands (33%), with the four having a “very low” risk level.
Portugal records a pluralism rate of 49%, being between France (46%) and Latvia (50%), while last place is occupied by Hungary, with a “very high” risk level (74%).
In 2022, Portugal occupied the 7th position between 32 countries and in 2024 is in 11th position.
Covering the 27 EU Member States, the MPM (Media Pluralism Monitor ‘) index evaluates media pluralism based on multiple components.
In the area of ’fundamental protection’, Portugal maintains the “low average” level, and the protection of freedom of expression is the most critical indicator, as “it continues to be stained in Portugal by the law of the Penal Code that punishes defamation with imprisonment.”
“Another worrying aspect has to do with the need to quickly legislate” anti-slapp “provisions, namely to protect journalists against abusive lawsuits aimed at silenced them,” the document warns.
Market plurality already has a “medium-high” risk due to the increasingly difficult economic situation of small and medium enterprises, traditional media revenues that have been decreasing, as well as the fact that the journalist profession is becoming increasingly precarious.
Regarding political independence, the country presents a “low risk”, while in social inclusion records a high risk, as “local media are increasingly affected by financial pressures and face various challenges to ensure economic stability,” reads the report.
In this sense, the “higher risk situation arises in the field of social inclusion, which now has a high risk. In the field of market plurality there are also persistent problems of market concentration. In the case of fundamental protection, the situation has worsened slightly, since Portugal still has critical questions to resolve […] In the case of political independence, this remains the most stable domain, presented a low risk level. “
The results of the report will be presented today at a conference at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences (FCSH) of the New University of Lisbon.
