In the Protest Note, to which the Lusa agency had access, the Information Directors of RTP, António José Teixeira, of RDP, Mário Galego, and the Director of RTP África, Isabel Silva Costa, express “deep concern and vehement repudiation” of the “arbitrary expulsion of the team from the Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, assigned to the Palácio da Cidade Alta to cover an official meeting of the Presidency”.
“Despite being duly accredited and legitimately exercising their journalistic function, RTP professionals were removed from the press room, in a selective and discriminatory action that contrasts with the permanence of other journalists”, reads the Protest Note.
The editorial directors of the Portuguese public broadcaster consider that the attitude of the Angolan authorities “represents an attack on freedom of the press and a flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of journalism and democracy”.
“RTP was also excluded from the WhatsApp group of the Presidency Press Center – the official means of disseminating the institutional agenda of accredited media outlets”, in Angola, continues the Protest Note.
For RTP, the Presidency's decision not to allow its professionals to attend official events “reveals an unacceptable attempt to silence freedom of expression in a country that claims to be committed to democratic values”.
RTP's editorial managers reiterate their solidarity with their professionals and demand “full respect for the rights of journalists, the restoration of working conditions”, as well as “an end to practices of political exclusion in access to information of public interest”.
“Freedom of the press is not a concession. It is an inalienable right in any democratic society,” he concludes.
