OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media meets with Portuguese Ambassador

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), Teresa Ribeiro, met today, 18 January 2021, with Ambassador Jorge Lobo de Mesquita to discuss the situation of media freedom in Portugal.

Ribeiro raised her concern over recent reports that four journalists had been unlawfully surveilled over the course of two months (April – May 2018), with the purpose of identifying their sources. The order for the surveillance came from a Lisbon Public prosecutor, as part of the investigation into leaks related to the “electronic mole” corruption case launched in March 2018. In this investigation, prosecutors had accused soccer club Benfica Lisbon of illegally accessing judicial records to get tipoffs on other investigations involving the club.

Ribeiro welcomed the recent launch of investigations by the Portuguese authorities into the unlawful surveillance of the journalists, and she agreed with Lobo de Mesquita that the Portuguese authorities would inform her and her Office about further developments.

Ribeiro reminded all OSCE participating States of their agreement, in Ministerial Council Decision No. 3 of 2018 on the Safety of Journalists, to “[…] refrain from arbitrary or unlawful interference with journalists’ use of encryption and anonymity technologies and refrain from employing unlawful or arbitrary surveillance techniques, noting that such acts infringe on the journalists’ enjoyment of human rights, and could put them at potential risk of violence and threats to their safety”.