Paulo Novais / LUSA
Ana Abrunhosa, president of Coimbra City Council
The elected members of Lusa’s Editorial Council (CR) repudiated “in the strongest terms the undemocratic behavior” of the mayor of Coimbra towards a journalist from the news agency.
The case began with an incident that occurred at the last council meeting, following the publication of a news story about the Casa do Cinema de Coimbra, in which the Lusa journalist João Gaspar realized that the space is at risk of losing its license due to the municipality not moving forward with the agreed rehabilitation plan, saying that it questioned the municipal executive, but received no response.
Ana Abrunhosapresident of the Coimbra City Council, stated, at the time, that the news from the aforementioned journalist was lacking in truth, therefore removing political confidence.
According to , following this episode, which occurred on Friday, all journalists who were present at the meeting left the room.
However, the elected members of Lusa’s Editorial Board (CR) repudiated“in the strongest terms the undemocratic behavior” of Ana Abrunhosa, in relation to a journalist from the news agency.
The accusations that the mayor directed against the Lusa executive “are extremely serious and call into question the good name and professional honesty of the journalist, in addition to constituting an attempt to intimidation unacceptable of Social Communication in general”.
“Democracy is not that and the attitude of the president of the CMC is even more serious because it corresponds to a undemocratic behavior that has been seen in Portugal and other countries where the Journalism is questioned”, reads a statement.
The elected members of the CR “follow the Information Directorate [DI] of Lusa in the note it distributed to the editorial staff and in all the actions it undertakes to defend the good name of the journalist and the comrades of the Central region delegation, as well as all Lusa professionals”.
Os newsroom representatives express to João Gaspar – from whom they received a presentation and with whom they spoke – and to the comrades of the delegation from the Central region in particular, “total solidarity”making himself available “to monitor the actions that may be undertaken, privately or institutionally, to repair the reputational damage caused by the president of the CMC”.
On Friday, the DI of the Lusa agency wrote a letter to the mayor of Coimbra “repudiating accusations” that she addressed to João Gaspar, at the executive’s public meeting.
In a note, DI considered that the accusations of the mayor elected in a PS/Livre/PAN coalition were “unreasonable, unfounded and defamatory” and reiterated his confidence in João Gaspar, “whose journalism career in Lusa is irreproachable”.
The management emphasized that the journalist limited himself to reporting on the Casa do Cinema de Coimbra, addressing the concerns of the space coordinator.
“More, tried to do the opposite, asking the Chamber for clarification. It was only after nine days that the news was published and even then only after personally urging the person responsible for communications at that body”, he says in the same note.
The article quotes the space coordinator, Tiago Santosaccording to which Casa do Cinema de Coimbra is at risk of losing its license due to the municipality not moving forward with the agreed rehabilitation plan, and adds that Lusa questioned the municipal executive, but received no response.
The case led the PCP to accuse the mayor of making accusations that showed “traits of arrogance”.
“Or PCP condemns conditioning attempt of the free exercise of journalism, which took place at the Coimbra municipal executive meeting”, highlights a statement from the Coimbra municipal structure.
For the communists, this episode, on the part of Abrunhosa, reveals “traits of arrogance and difficulty in dealing with criticism”, considering “that respect for media workers is a basic duty of those holding public positions”, and expressing “full solidarity with the targeted journalist”.
The Liberal Initiative (IL) of Coimbra also condemned the behaviordemanding that Ana Abrunhosa retract her public attack on the Lusa journalist and that “cease any attempt to condition social communication”.
“It is behavior is unacceptable, intimidating and poses a threat directly to freedom of the press and the free exercise of journalism”, accused IL/Coimbra, in a statement.
Liberals argued that “a journalist does not need political trust no one to perform their functions” and pointed out that “journalism exists to scrutinize power and not to validate it”.
“When a municipal executive chooses to remain silent when faced with requests for clarification, the responsibility for the lack of response in the news lies exclusively with the executive, and not with the journalist who fulfills his duty to inform”, they stressed.
