Professor Helena Sousa integrates RTP’s Independent General Council

The Independent General Council (CGI) has co-opted to the body that oversees RTP the full professor Helena Sousa which she is part of the Department of Communication Sciences and president of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Minho, as well as a researcher at CECS, where she leads the Group of Communication, Organizations and Social Dynamics).  Maria Helena Costa de Carvalho e Sousa is also a specialist of the Council of Europe for the Media (Committee of Experts on Media Pluralism and Transparency of Media Ownership, MSI-MED), as well as a member of the Scientific Council of Social Sciences and Humanities of FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) [Foundation for Science and Technology]. With this co-optation, the composition of the CGI is completed, after the Government has indicated the name of the diplomat Seixas da Costa and the Council of Opinion of RTP have designated the professor José Carlos Vieira de Andrade. ERC has already given the green light to Helena Sousa’s co-optation for RTP’s Independent General Council.

Last June, the CGI held the draw for the departure of three members (half of the total composition), according to the law, who finished their term on September 11. Ana Lourenço (appointed by the Government), Manuel Pinto, also a full also a professor at the University of Minho and a member of CECS, where he leads the Media and Journalism Group (Opinion Council) and Álvaro Dâmaso (co-opted) ended their term of office. António Feijó, Simonetta Luz Afonso and Diogo Lucena remaining in office.

The CGI is composed of six members, one of them president, and its mandate lasts for six years. The Law 39/2014 provided that, after three years of the first term, a lottery would be made to gauge the three members whose terms had expired and which three had fulfilled them, which happened in June to allow time for the new members to be appointed. Of the three seats that have been replaced, one is nominated by the Government, another by the RTP Opinion Board and the third co-opted.

Among its functions, the CGI defines RTP guidelines for the fulfillment of the public service obligations, appointing the Board of Directors and its strategic project of the company, as well as supervising its continuation in replacement of the guardianship.

The current Board of Directors of RTP, led by Gonçalo Reis, ends the mandate in February 2018, according to the law, it is incumbent upon the CGI to appoint the members that comprise this body.

Text: Vítor de Sousa (with Lusa)