RTP
Commentator and historian Raquel Varela.
46-year-old historian, 11 years at RTP, very critical of the new management’s decision. “Not because of me, as no one is irreplaceable. But because voices like mine no longer represent an “’opinion'”, he wrote in a statement.
to historian Raquel Varelawho has occupied a commentary space on RTP for 11 years, will leave the channel 1 debate chair.
The university professor announced her departure on social media and in her last commentary panel on RTP3 (which changes its name this Sunday night, to RTP Notícias), with words and accusations that have generated a debate among public opinion: are we facing another case of dismissal or censorship?
This seems to have been the discussion that the 46-year-old researcher herself tried to raise, when writing on her social networks that her departure from RTP was not due to her choice, but due to the choice of the station’s new management.
“I leave due to political choice”stated Raquel Varela, who suggests that she intended to continue not out of declared self-interest, but to maintain the presence of voices from different quarters in the debate space.
“My departure from RTP’s weekly commentary is certainly not due to ratings, as they have gone up in all the programs I’ve been on (…). I leave because of a political choice – all choices are political, and we must speak openly about them“, writes the university professor in the public.
The commentator continues, leaving a warning: “My departure as a commentator from RTP further weakens the public sphere. Not because of me, as no one is irreplaceable. But because voices like mine no longer represent an “’opinion'”, further pointing out that “the public voice is a necessity” and “must be serious and diverse”, but that “it is becoming less and less so. And this is what has also led to the loss of audiences – the ad nauseam repetition of the same arguments, the same lack of imagination or will to rethink society.”
Raquel Varela also recalled in the statement, in passing, the mention of Chega as “fascist”, which she adopted to refer to André Ventura’s party, which was considered by some following his departure from RTP.
“I have been guided all these years by an uncompromising defense of freedom of expression”, writes the university professor: “Even against a capitulatory, moralistic and decaffeinated center-left. What we are witnessing today is, however, of enormous gravity. I have twenty years of career as a historian and teacher. If I say that Chega is fascist, it is not to produce a media effect. I am careful with concepts. We are experiencing the legitimization of irrationalism, of the cult of State, punishment, verbal (and physical) violence against those perceived as weaker and lies as ‘opinion’. That the State has legalized this is one thing, for me as a historian to accept it would be an ethical break with my work.”
