Keeping Up Appearances

Abstract

Since the end of a 50-year-long authoritarian regime in Portugal in the mid-1970s, political discourses and legal texts have incorporated media diversity as a fundamental democratic value. The 1976 Constitution prohibited cross-media concentration and subsequent media legislation contemplated pluralism as a vital societal dimension. This recognition, however, has always been expressed in vague, ineffectual terms as no government has ever had a real interest in preventing concentration of media ownership or in guaranteeing broadcasting content diversity. In an ever fragile political environment, governments have either encouraged `friendly' media groups or, fearing adverse reaction, abstained from acting against the perceived interests of the established ones. Taking advantage of the smallness of the country, media owners have efficiently argued that scale was necessary to maintain the media in national hands, and that concentration in itself was a guarantee of media content diversity. The `foreign enemy' argument has served the interests of both successive governments and domestic multimedia groups.