quinta-feira, 29 de setembro de 2011

New Democracy Party sit-in in the Jornal da Madeira - reasons

The New Democracy Party staged a sit-in in the government-owned propaganda paper, the Jornal da Madeira. The Jornal has continued biased reporting of the election campaigns and had failed to comply with the National Comission of Election deliberation ordering it to respect pluralism of opinion.

The National Comission of Elections (NCE) had twice ruled against the Jornal for its biased coverage and lack of pluralism in two previous elections, remitting the information to the Public Prosecutor's Office. This, however, was the first time that the Comission had taken a decision prior to the election date itself.

The New Democracy Party had lodged a complaint regarding lack of pluralism at the beggining of August and the NCE deliberated in early September that the Jornal should comply with the law and observe the rules of impartiality and pluralism. The decision, however, was overturned by the Supreme Court following an appeal by the Jornal, saying that the NCE had not provided enough evidence. The Comission repeated its decision, this time with ample factual evidence and the Supreme Court upheld the decision, which was made public on the 22nd of September.

The Jornal has cut the number of its political opinion peices, but continues only publishing articles from the ruling party and it coverage is totally biased towards the PSD and the Jardim Government.

Sem comentários:

Enviar um comentário