Director of the Jornal to stand trial for biased election coverage

The director of the Jornal da Madeira is to stand trial for biased coverage of the Presidential elections held in 2011.

The Jornal moved preliminar proceedings to have the case dismissed, but its arguments did not persuade the judge.

This is the first of three similar cases pending. An earlier one was expired, despite the judge finding that there were grounds for prosecution.

What was different about the last elections

In a talk show, last week, the PSD representatives had a common theme tune: The choice of the people must be respected, after all, these were democratic elections just like all the previous ones.

Not quite. Although the result was no doubt due to Jardim's ever growing impopularity, there were also less violations of the election laws.

Jardim's trump card has always been the public inauguration ceremonies. These occasions were marked by huge banquets for the attending masses, preceded by  political speeches where Jardim ranted against the opposition parties. Two or three of these ceremonies would be held daily and Jardim's hate speech would be broadcast over television and radio...

This year, not only were the inaugurations fewer, but some were devoid of the usual banquets and Jardim kept his speeches impartial and short - less than two minutes. With several cases pending in the justice system for election violations, perhaps he was forewarned by state entities not to push his luck.

Jardim's other main weapon is the state-owned Jornal where the opinion-pieces are all written by PSD militants. In the run-up to elections, this usually meant three daily pieces praising Jardim and trashing the opposition. Now, however, most of the article-writers have dwindled away, and apart from Jardim himself, only one or two of his bootlickers remain active, and even their articles are luke warm.

The Jornal, however, continued to toe the line, promoting the PSD candidates above all others. In some editions, the PSD candidatures got twice as much coverage as all the other candidatures put together. A clear violation of the law, which should earn the director yet another criminal suit. Curiously, this bias towards the PSD candidatures was not due to coverage of the candidates themselves, but to the coverage of the campaign actions of a non-candidate - Jardim!

Justice system allows Case against Jornal to prescribe

One of the criminal proceedings against the Jornal for violation of the election laws has prescribed. 

Judge Iron Hand called in the Jornal to propose a deal which was turned down by the latter because the case had just prescribed ...after three years! 

There are four more cases pending against the Jornal for the same crime. The impunity cannot go on forever!

Destruction of electoral propaganda case reopened

The Public Prosecutor's Office has reopened the case against members of the PSD Madeira Youth for destruction of oppostion election posters. The case had initially been shelved but was reopened due to new information. This may be related to the National PSD initiating proceedings to expel the former PSD Madeira Youth leader, José Pedro Pereira, for alledgedly destroying oppostion election posters, throwing smoke bombs at opposition rallies and other rowdy behaviour. José Pedro's followers are now accusing the current PSD Madeira Youth leader, Romulo Coelho, of involvement in vandalising oppostion election posters.

José Pedro Pereira, the former PSD Madeira Youth leader, is due to stand trial for alledgedly peeing on a police car and insulting Police agents.

4 Proceedings against the Jornal for Election Violations

Four criminal proceedings against the Jornal are currently underway at the Public Prosecutor's Office:

2135/19.2 TAFUN, violation of election laws for the 2009 National and Municipal elections

3539/11.9 TAFUN, violation of the elections laws for the 2011 Presidential elections

1327/12.4 TAFUN, violation of the election laws for the 2011 national elections

2011/10.2 TAFUN, violation of election laws for the 2011 regional elections...

Ten Years

Yesterday I was stopped in the street by a sympathizer who said if only we had appeared on the scene ten years ago, things might have been different, we might have been able to open peoples' minds and change things for the better. People wouldn't have paid us any attention, I said.

Curiously, it has been ten years since I returned to Madeira and got involved. December 2002. In 2003 My sister and I protested the expropriation of the Hinton factory. My sister lay on the ground in front of the bulldozer. People were shocked, it was not the done thing!

When I returned my family were being treated as real social pariahs. Childhood friends would shy away and pretend not to see me, we were an embarrassment. We had been singled out by Jardim as enemies of the Madeirans who must be hated, ostracized, expropriated and expelled. We were an example of how he could use state power to persecute and destroy people. The Government proposed to pay a pittance in compensation and Jardim began a real hate campaign in state occasions and in the press, even accusing us of using slave labour. The message was not lost on anyone; they feared receiving the same treatment if they were associated with us.

We persisted. The following year, 2004, when the site was inaugurated during the election campaign, we lay on the ground in protest. On Jardim's orders, were hauled away by police in front of the national TV stations, which also broadcast Jardim's hate filled public speech against us. People began to timidly show their support.

Actually, the first protest had already attracted some support. It lead to me meeting the journalist Gil Canha (fired from the Diário for his 'delenda cartago: to unload a ship in Madeira costs six times more than in the Azores, Thank President Jardim').

In January 2004 we launched the first issue of the satirical newspaper 'Garajau'. We denounced what the other papers were afraid to touch, naming names. We expected not to last six months, but it was a success with the public. From the second issue on, the Government began to instal criminal proceedings against our cartoons, humor, opinion pieces, and much later for our investigations.

Humour, protest and making the justice system work were our three lines of action. We began to denounce the negligence and complicity in the Public Prosecutor's Office and in the Justice system. Naming judges and prosecutors who received favors. We started targeting entities to take a stand on the abuses here: Public Prosecutor's Office, National Commission of Elections, Press Entity, President of the Republic, European Commission.

We also launched court proceedings to, among other things, stop illegally approved buildings - something which was already being done by environmental associations and the then socialist, Filipe Sousa, from Gaula. In 2007, I  launched a case against the Funchal Centrum, the biggest building in the centre of Funchal - approved on the basis of an absurd appreciation that since it occupied a whole block it needn't comply with the city plan. Nobody had dared take on Jardim's right hand man, Jaime Ramos before. When the building was embargoed, Jardim had a fit, accusing us of being Ayatollahs and saboteurs and promising retaliation. The embargo was another shake to the system.

In 2007 we entered politics through the Partido da Nova Democracia. Our objective was to use humor, protest and the law to challenge the 30 year old regime. We (Gil, Baltasar, Coelho and myself) protested against Jardim's use of inaugurations for party political campaign. Jardim incited his supporters against us, we were heckled and physically harassed at every step.

Our political TV advert, in which we used the character Bexiga to make fun of the regime however, was a huge success. When we took him to a huge inauguration where a crowd of thousands had gathered and Bexiga began to meet and greet the people, just twenty or so meters behind Jardim, Jardim really blew his top and the situation nearly got out of hand.

We elected one Member of Parliament in 2007. The Public Prosecutor's Office allowed our case against Jardim's election crimes to prescribe.

We have not stopped since. In January 2011, we embarked on a mammoth task of challenging the Jardim's Party and exposing the regime's abuses in Madeira by launching José Manuel Coelho as Presidential candidate. In a society where people were afraid to criticize the regime, we managed to gather more than the 7500 necessary signatures. Coelho won 39% of the votes in Madeira, 5% behind the candidate of the PSD and CDS, Cavaco. A current of change had begun - the regime was shown to be vulnerable - alas, ten years too late!

National Comission of Elections condems Jornal again

The National Commission of Elections has again found that the Jornal da Madeira was not impartial in its coverage of the National Legislative Elections held in June 2011. Its coverage was favourable to the PSD in terms of space attributed. The PSD was the only party to recieve first page coverage (11 times). In terms of opinion pieces the Commission found that:
The Socialist Party is mentioned in 65 articles, 63 considered unfavourable and 2 neutral; It is the target of six cartoons, all considered unfavourable;
The PSD is mentioned in 14 articles, 8 favourable, 5 unfavourable (Jardim maintins a running battle with his party on the mainland. All references to the Madeira party are highly favourable); 5 unfavourable cartoons (the targets all belonging to the mainland) and one neutral;
The CDS is mentioned in 9 articles, 8 unfavourable and 1 neutral and one cartoon, unfavourable;
The Communist-Green Alliance is mentioned in six articles, 5 unfavourable and one neutral and one unfavourable cartoon;
The LEft Bloc is mentioned in five articles, 4 unfavourable and 1 neutral and 3 cartoons, all unfavourable;
The New Democracy Party is mentioned in 5 articles and one cartoon, all unfavourable;
The Labour Party is referenced in two articles and two cartoons, all unfavourable
The Earth Party is mentioned in two articles, unfavourable;
The remaining parties are mentioned in one article, unfavourable-

This result is hardly surprising since all the people who write political opinion pieces in the Jornal are PSD militants. The attacks against mainland PSD figures are consistent with the local PSD propaganda and aim to strengthen the local PSD presence within the national parliament).

The report has been sent to the local Public Prosecutor's Office to install criminal proceedings, as it has done on at least three occasions in the past. The local Public Prosecutor's Office has in the past systematically thrown out the cases, despite all the obvious and undeniable evidence. These decisions are currently on appeal.

The Jornal da Madeira is publicly funded to the tune of four million Euros per year and is handed out for free to the population. Its print run is hugely increased during the election periods.

Election Comission findings on Jardim's election violations

The National Comission of Elections has deliberated that Alberto João Jardim and two Mayors violated the election laws during the 2011 Regional Elections. The decision has been forwarded to the Public Prosecutor's Office to install criminal proceedings.

Jardim and his party colleagues have been found to have violated the duty to maintain strict impartiality while acting in official capacity during public acts. Jardim has been found to use official, publicly funded, inauguration ceremonies to promote his own party and attack rival parties.

The findings naturally call into question the legitimacy of Jardim's election result, the legitimacy of the PSD majority in Parliament and the legitimacy of the Jardim Government itself. But will the Portuguese authorities act?

Funchal City decides to stop inaugurations during election campaign

The Funchal City Council unanimously approved a motion proposed by the New Democracy Party not to hold inauguration ceremonies during the election campaing period. The PSD's use of such official ceremonies for party-political propaganda during election times has long been denounced by opposition parties. This decision will significantly contribute to the fairness of the election process, which has been totally subverted by Jardim for the last three decades.

Jardim usually uses these occasions to make rabid speeches against the opposition parties and is shielded from criminal prosecution by the fact that his part's absloute majority in Parliament ensures his immunity is never lifted.

Albuquerque, the PSD Mayor of Funchal has reached the limit of mandates at the Funchal Municipality and cannot run for another term in office. Jardim has recently accused him of being a traitor and of having stabbed him in the back, due to the fact that Albuquerque is challenging him for party leadership.

Commission of Election condemns Jornal for the 4th time

The National Commission of Elections has for the fourth time determined that the Jornal's coverage during the election period was biased in favor of the PSD. THE FOURTH TIME.

The case has been sent to the Public Prosecutor's office for criminal procedures. Will the Public Prosecutor's Office take any action? I hope the case is not given again to Assistant Prosecutor Gameiro, since there is a conflict of interests - friendships.

Ex-Mayor of Santana Condemned for Malfeasance

Carlos Pereira, ex-Mayor of Santana and Abel Almada, City Councillor were both condemned to suspended sentences of three and a half years and three years respectively, for malfeasance.

The sentences were suspended on condition that they pay 20,000 and 10.000 Euros respectively, to four charities. 

The case reported to the government-funded tennis court, built by a local club on the grounds of a private hotel. The charges that the whole operation was a scam were dropped, thus absolving Jaime Lucas, former head of the Madeira Sports Institute - now a local MP for the PSD. 

The Mayor and Councillor were convicted for having allowed the court to be built without a license. They alleged that government projects did not require a municipal license, ignoring the fact that the Sports Club was the entity in charge of the project. 

The sentence read: The illegality of the conduct of the accused is serious, because in their anxiety to legalize a project, with the sole aim of allowing it to be inaugurated one week before the 2004 regional elections  to the benefit of the parties involved, they neglected the minimum basic rules of procedure.

Jardim reacted to the sentence insinuating that the two were convicted due to the political bias of the judges and that the convictions would be overturned on appeal.

He may be right in that the sentence may be overturned. The judges, far from showing political bias, had already thrown out the more damaging charges of fraud, letting Lucas, Candelária and other PSD henchmen off the hook; what remained were minor charges. 

Shades of the Bacelar case….(more on that later)

Private Eye on Madeira

(published in 2009)

With our cake, port and hardy island mentality, Madeira, an outcrop in the Atlantic and an autonomous region of Portugal, conjures up old-fashioned values. Our fondness for our traditional way stretches to our politics and a bygone era when leaders were no-nonsense characters who knew how to get things done.

Dr. Alberto João Jardim is such a man. He has been in power for 30 years (a little behind Colonel Gaddafi but just ahead of Robert Mugabe). As a young man he was an ardent supporter of the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal and wrote propaganda for its army, then fighting dirty wars in Africa. He was against multiparty democracy but these days Madeira is, at least constitutionally, a part of modern Europe and ours is an elected leader.

For this Dr. Jardim praises what he calls our "superior people", our blissfully few difficulties being the product of a "satanic triangle" between what passes for an opposition, the independent press and the English, who have long controlled our economy.

A place as special as Madeira needs a special kind of democracy. Thus our public prosecutors recently decided not to pursue a case against the violation of election laws on the grounds that the violations weren't serious enough. Opposition speaking times in parliament have been cut three times in the last year, provoking one opposition deputy to raise the Nazi flag in protest. The president (who is executive head of government) only goes to parliament once a year to get the budget approved. On this occasion, he answers no questions and speaks for an unlimited time, during which he insults every member of the opposition, one by one. The Spanish paper El Mundo calls Jardim 'El Maestro del Insulto'.

But why bother with parliament when one can speak directly to the people? In one year, Jardim managed to preside over 450 official openings: a roundabout, 100 meters of new road, any number of white elephants. The ruling Social Democratic Party has a policy of supporting an ambitious public works program; and who better to deliver on so many of such contracts than a clutch of building firms and one of the island's biggest suppliers of cement, in which, coincidentally, Jaime Ramos, the party's general secretary, is a prominent shareholder! He is also treasurer of the party's foundation which owns 40 or so buildings on the island, used as party offices and conference centers. The foundation also owns land in the mountains which served as a landfill site. Symbolically, it is now being converted into a space to hold, er, political rallies.

Madeira's publicly owned newspaper, the Jornal, officially undercuts its rival with a cover price of just 10 cents, but in practice is handed out for free thanks to the generosity of the taxpayer (€3 million a year) and the advertising departments of government  ministries and agencies, who contribute €500.000 annually. The paper toes a consistent editorial line, as might be expected when only Jardim's closest party allies are allowed to write opinion pieces.

The president, with no sense of irony, sees himself as something of a "godfather" figure, recently exhorting his party's youth wing to be a mafia "in the good sense". When João Carlos Gouveia, leader of the main opposition party, raised the issue of corruption in parliament, the majority passed a motion to have his mental faculties examined. Opposition MPs promptly walked out in protest - leaving the president's supporters to vote through 17 motions in a mere 15 minutes.

When Cavaco Silva, the Portuguese president, visited last year, Jardim warned that he should not attend parliament because it was filled with lunatics. Accordingly Cavaco received opposition delegations in a hotel room. He concluded his visit observing that Jardim's regime was a "model democracy". 

National Commission of Elections vs Public Prosecutor’s Office

The Public Prosecutor’s Office shelved a case of violation of the Election Law against the government-owned newspaper,  Jornal da Madeira, relating its coverage of the 2009 national and municipal elections.  The National Commission of Elections (CNE) appealed the decision, to the higher echelons of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office rejected the appeal on the grounds that the National Commission was not the party discriminated against. It then notified the party who could legitimately appeal, in this case, the New Democracy Party (PND).

The Public Prosecutor’s Office had taken an identical decision regarding the 2007 regional elections but neglected to notify the party, thereby denying it the possibility of appealing against the decision.

Curiously, in its most recent decision, the Public Prosecutor’s Office deliberately misquotes the National Commission of Election, stating that it had found all the opinion pieces published to be politically ‘neutral’. What the CNE report actually stated was that they were systematic propaganda in favor of the ruling party.  In fact, only members of the PSD ruling party write political opinion pieces in the paper, and they are everything but of a neutral nature.

Judge Resigns from Election Commission

Judge Paulo Barreto, the National Commission of Election's delegate in Madeira has resinged from the Commission, citing his weariness with the systematic violation of the election laws.

During the campaign, tens of complaints were lodged against the use of state means to carry out party propaganda and denouncing the impartiality of Jardim's speeches at inaugurations/official ceremonies.

The National Commission of Elections allowed these abuses to go on, all the way through the campaign and has yet to take any public position on these violations of the election law.

Judge: Campaign unfolds with 'usual abnormality'

Judge Paulo Barreto, the national Comission of Elections' representative in Madeira has confounded the mainland commentators with the statement that the election campaign is unfolding with the 'usual abnormality'. Surely he should be saying 'normality'. Since Jardim has blatantly been violating the election law for decades without state entities intervening, the judge's statement hits the nail on the head.

Anyone watching the news, for instance, will watch 15 minutes devoted to Jardim, as Regional President, using state functions to promote his campaign and then will see him again, this time campaigning as party leader for another five minutes.

PND protests violation of election law

The PND has been present at many official inauguration ceremonies, protesting against the use of state functions for party-political propaganda. Jardim already has a case against him for doing this, but he is protected by his parliamentary immunity and cannot be brought to stand trial.

Alberto João feeds us!

Banquet for the masses at the official inauguration ceremony of the Cota 500 motorway. This scene is repeated in all the seventy official ceremonies in the period preceding the election. People are bussed in to eat and listen to propaganda.

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

The New Democracy Party sit-in had the objective of drawing attention to the use of the Jornal for PSD propaganda in violation of the election law. The aim was to speak to the direction of the Jornal and to the major stake-holders, the Church and the Government.

Though the Church has only a symbolic share in the Jornal company, according to the company statutes, it is the Diocese (i.e. the Bishop) who appoints the editor and is responsible for guiding the editoral line. Over the last few years, the PND has repeatedly written to the Bishop to request an audience to discuss the Jornal. It was never granted.

On entering the building, the delegation was immediately received with violence on the part of the Jornal administrator, Rui Nobrega (marreid to a prominent local judge), who expelled the accompanying journalists from the building and tried (with the help of staff) to focefully evict the PND delegation.

Nobrega then lodged a complaint at the Police requesting a forceful eviction of the PND. In mid-afternoon, the Police informed the Rapid Intervention Brigade was ready to forcefully remove the delegation from the building. They were then informed that the builing belonged to the Diocese and that the eviction request could legally only be made by the Bishop. The Bishop refused to lodge criminal charges against the sit-in and later in the day, the Police informed that this being the case their mission was over.

Throughout the day, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the Jornal in solidarity with the sit-in. Various oppoisition parties made statements in solidarity with the action. The Socialist Party, the largest opposition party, stated that whereas the PND were barricaded in the building for a few hours, President Jardim has been 'barricading' himself inside for over three decades. The Animal Party also joined the protest ouside for some time and José Manuel Coelho, from the Workers' Party, parked his van outside and addressed the crowd throughout the day. The sit-in lasted until 20.15 - ten hours.

In the evening, the Diocese issued a statement saying it did not meet with political parties in the period preceding an election; it omitted to say that it has repeatedly denied requests made over the last few years to discuss the Jornal. The current Bishop is the cousin of the President of the Republic - a former PSD prime-minister, who similarly refuses to even comment on election violations in Madeira.

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.

Polls show Jardim set for new absolute majority

Despite his failing popularity this is hardly a surprise. The means he has at his disposal to campaign are overwhelming. 

Jardim controls the government-owned newspaper (jornal) which is totally biased and gives minimal coverage of opposition parties and none at all to the PND. The paper is financed to the tune of 4 million Euro a year and its 15000 copies are distributed for free throughout the island. The Jornal only carries (highly virulent) opinion pieces of Jardim's closest circle. 

There is no competition possible with this propaganda machine and the 'best' of it is: all this free publicity does not even eat in to the PSD campaign funds, its a a government funded newspaper! 

The other major scam is the use of official ceremonies as party rallies. 'With millions i hold inaugurations; with inaugurations I win elections', as Jardim succinctly put it. These usually involve the opening of  a new public work or private investment, where food and entertainment is provided and the local population is invited to hear Jardim's hallucinated rants against the opposition 'traitors', 'colonialists', 'foreigners' etc.  

Again, these events to not eat into his campaign budget since they are government or private funded.

Are these advantages legal? No, but state entities have up until recently turned a blind eye.  Had they ever obliged Jardim to compete on equal terms he would not have managed to stay 33 YEARS in POWER.

But the state entities are not alone to blame, for the larger opposition parties, despite moaning about the unfairness, have never seriously taken the matter up with the authorities or made a firm stand. This makes people wonder if they are deliberately playing to loose or are unwilling to take on Godzilla, head first. 

What are the clues?

Inconceivably, the Socialist Party, instead of pressing the authorities to oblige the Jornal to provide them with the opinion space they should be entitled to, is paying large sums for whole page adverts in the Diário (which does not even have such a big readership since it is not given out for free). Meanwhile, the CDS, while they complained to President Cavaco about the unfair use of the inaugurations, were themselves hosts to Jardim at a private inauguration during the last elections.