Television in post-revolutionary Portugal

instrumentalization, deregulation, resignation of the State and weakening of the media sector

Abstract

This study integrates a historical-political characterization of the emergence of the Portuguese conservative-liberal bloc “Aliança Democrática” (1979-1983) with an analysis of the news and television programming, emphasizing the early 1980s and the television public service’s dependence on a political majority. This historical analysis of the opening of the Television to the private sector, also addresses the question of the Catholic Church’s channel, which also marks the decade, as well as the issue of the relationship of the State with the television sector and the radio spectrum as instruments of the political party system and government, the framework of the “cavaquismo” period in its relationship with TV, and finally, in a conclusive mode, an approach to the emergence of private TV in Portugal and its consequences, in this case in the light of the studies by Nelson Traquina referred to in the bibliography, seeking to revisit the knowledge about the period and the respective state of the art.