Tiago Petinga / Lusa
Ana Abrunhosa
President of Coimbra City Council had an “unfortunate moment” that he will not repeat. Journalist João Gaspar was at this session of the Assembly.
The president of Coimbra City Council, Ana Abrunhosa, publicly retracted the accusations he had made against journalist from the Lusa agency João Gaspar.
The request for sorry it was done this Wednesday during a session of the Coimbra Municipal Assembly, at a time when several motions were being discussed; one of them was from the PSD condemning this episode.
The journalist in question was at the session: “I wanted to tell you that I had the opportunity to speak by phone with Lusa’s information director, Luísa Meireles, and personally with the journalist João Gaspar, who is present here and who has always been present“, declared Ana Abrunhosa. It was a ““unfortunate moment” that will not happen againhe assured.
In addition to the apology to Lusa and journalist João Gaspar, the mayor also reiterated the municipal executive’s commitment to press freedom and with the transparency in relations with the media.
“We base our actions on total respect and collaboration with the media, recognizing their fundamental role in society,” he said.
In this sense, Ana Abrunhosa recognized that “The role of journalists is not to please politicians”, adding that the municipality will continue to provide all the information necessary to carry out journalistic activities.
“They can legitimately wonder if it was an unfortunate moment or if it is a constant for this president. I believe I deserve the benefit of the doubt,” he declared.
After Ana Abrunhosa’s apology, the PSD municipal group decided to withdraw from the vote the motion it had presented criticizing the episode and demanding institutional respect for press freedom.
The motion had also been signed by Nós Cidadãos, CDS-PP, Liberal Initiative, Bloco de Esquerda and CDU.
The origin of this occurred three weeks ago: João Gaspar published an article in Lusa about the possible loss of license for Casa do Cinema de Coimbra, because the Chamber does not carry out the necessary works.
The journalist claims that he waited 9 days for a response from City Hall, which never came. Ana Abrunhosa accused the journalist of having committed a serious ethical error and having a political agenda; At the time, he removed the political trust of João Gaspar, who was also at that session.
