The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pedro Duarte, considered this Monday that “there is actually an excessive concentration in Lisbon” of the press and the audiovisual industry, after a visit to RTP’s North Production Center, in Gaia.
“In fact, there is an excessive concentration in Lisbon, in the capital, in terms of content production and, in general, in terms of the work done, journalistic and not, in terms of social communication,” he stated this Monday. Pedro Duarte Fair, after a visit to the RTP North Production Center, in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto district).
The government official stated that the executive is “ invest heavily in regional and local press”within the framework of the Social Communication Action Plan presented at the beginning of October.
After specifying that the North Production Center supplies 40% of all RTP television news programming, the minister stressed that public radio and television give “body to the entire national territory” and “voice to all Portuguese, regardless of where they are.”
Asked about the issues raised by the RTP Norte Workers Subcommittee regarding the end of advertising on the public station, Pedro Duarte said he had taken note “very carefully.”
“We have to listen to everyone and understand their anxieties, uncertainties and doubts. “We are available to clarify,” he stressed and said that he would meet with the Subcommittee today.
According to the minister, the proposal “Cutting advertising in RTP1 has the constructive objective of giving more strength and relevance to RTP, and not the other way around”.
“I know that there were some interpretations, some in a natural and legitimate way, and others perhaps with a slightly more political intention, which is also part of our democracy, they tried to distort what reality is a little,” he considered.
According to the official, what is at stake is not “cutting any investment in RTP,” but rather “very significantly increasing” investment in public radio and television.
“We want RTP to take a leap from a technological point of view and from the point of view of knowing what the reality is, today, of the audience it wants to reach,” he stressed, stressing that the problem is not in RTP, today. today “I’m doing things wrong”, but because “everything around me has changed”.
According to Pedro Duarte, this is an increase in RTP’s capital by more than 14 million from the Government and a bank loan of 40 million euros “which will help with a set of investments”, such as those being carried out in the North Production Center and also in Lisbon.
Source: Observadora
