RTP e relações de poder: de Durão Barroso a Passos Coelho

Anchored in the Political Economy of Media, the research presented here focuses on the evolution of the public service media model in Portugal, in the period between 2002 and 2014. It develops a reflection on the political options and power relations that are established between the various protagonists in the political, regulatory, media and civil society fields regarding the definition of the scope of the mission, financing and governance model of the RTP public service operator. The time interval selected is justified by the fact that the public operator RTP, in that period, was confronted with two restructuring processes, both under the aegis of center-right governments, interspersed by a government cycle of the Socialist Party. At first, in 2002 and 2003, during the XV Constitutional Government, presided over by Durão Barroso, there was a change in the model of organisation and financing of the public service. Subsequently, in 2011, with the XIX Constitutional Government, under the leadership of Passos Coelho, the intention to partially privatise the public service evolved to redefine RTP's financing and governance model.