APMEDIO, the association representing regional media outlets, launched an alert against the municipal portal Porto.pt, accusing the Porto municipality of potentially using public resources to compete with media outlets.
The association questions whether it is legitimate for a municipality to produce news content about the city's current affairs using public funds, raising doubts about the legality and ethics of this practice.
The alert emerges in a broader context of debate about the boundary between institutional communication from public bodies and journalistic work, which traditionally is carried out by independent entities subject to specific deontological rules.
APMEDIO argues that the production of numerous pieces about local current affairs with public resources may represent a distortion of competition in the media sector, harming media outlets that operate without state support.
