Censorship in modern day Portugal

Recently, a renowned Portuguese journalist, Mário Crespo, saw his weekly chronicle being removed from the newspaper where it supposedly should be published. In that chronicle, he expressed his thoughts on a conversation that the prime minister had about him while having lunch at a restaurant. According to him, the prime minister expressed how some journalists had already been “put away” from their jobs because of some undesired comments and he mentioned Mário Crespo as “a problem which had to be solved”. Fortunately, Mário Crespo is an old school journalist, the kind that has the guts to fight for his rights, leading to a wide discussion about freedom of speech in the country. The prime minister is even being metaphorically referred to as “the octopuss” because of the accusations on him using his tentacles to control the Portuguese media.

The prime minister has a problem with people criticizing him, no news there. The public has become aware of many scandals regarding his personal and political life, from his questionable University diploma, to the teacher that was fired for saying some undesirable comments on whether or not the prime minister is really an engineer. There is an huge mistrust for politicians in Portugal, as sooner or later we hear about some irregular activity executed by them before, or during, their political careers. It is really hard to hope for a politician whom has a real interest on the well being of a people, without being corrupted for external or selfish interests.