PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY

Parliamentary Group

Palace of S. Bento-1249-068 Lisbon / Portugal-Telef. 21391 9201/2-Fax: 21391 7432-e-mail; gp_pcp@pcp.parlamento.pt

Draft Law No 333 /X

Amends the Status of Journalists by strengthening the legal protection of rights

of author and of the secrecy of the sources of information

As it is common knowledge, with the submission of a Law Proposal of the XVII

Constitutional government finds itself open a legislative process aiming to amend the

Status of Journalists approved by Law No. 1/99 of January 13.

The CFP has a globally negative position about that Act Proposal, already

publicly explained, and shares concerns already manifested by diverse

entities that have spoken out about that legislative initiative, and specifically by the

Union of Journalists as a representative entity of the workers whose

Statute is intended to change.

Incidentally, the presentation of that initiative followed the announcement of the governmental intention,

already realized in the State Budget Proposal for 2007, from extinguishing the Box

of Journalists, depriving this professional class of an important right to protection

in the disease acquired for decades.

The Proposal for an Amendment Bill to the Status of Journalists appears as well as more

a play-perhaps the most relevant one-of a global offensive against rights

of the journalists aiming to further degrade already extremely fragilized conditions

in which such professionals carry out their activity.

The Parliamentary Group of the CPP will take up its positions about the proposed Law of the

Government, either globally, when it takes place on its appreciation in the generality, wants

point by point, in specialty headquarters.

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It is not for this purpose of the Parliamentary Group of the CFP, with the presentation of the

present initiative, respond globally to the Government Proposal or replace

in full the Status of Journalists in force.

The present Draft Law aims so only to contribute with concrete proposals for

two very relevant subjects that are under discussion: The protection of the rights of

author of the journalists against the abusive reuse of their work and the protection of the

right to secrecy about the sources of information.

In the first case, it is about responding to a trend that has been imposing on the

media sector, of, in the name of technological developments, making the work

journalistic in a kind of "white product" that the proprietary companies of a

myriad of media organs use within the framework of the respective group

business when and where they understand, being the private journalist of any

protection as to the authorship of their work and any compensation

remunerative for their reuse. In this, as in other subjects, it is intended that

adapting to the new conditions of the "market" dictated by technological innovation, be

made exclusively at the expense of the rights of workers.

The issue of the legal protection of the right to secrecy about the sources of

information, it matters to take into consideration the fundamental character of such protection

as true touchstone of the freedom of the press. There will be no journalism of

research nor will there be truly freedom of the press on the day when the

journalists live under the fear of having to reveal their sources of information. The

relativization of this value in contraposition with others, albeit obviously

estimable, the one carrying out the Government Act Proposal, does not appear

sufficiently protective of that right to secrecy.

Thus, the CPP Parliamentary Group proposes that it be resumed in the Statute of the

Journalists the wording adopted in Law No. 62/79 of September 20, which regulated

precisely that matter.

In these terms, the Parliamentary Group of the CFP presents the following Draft Law:

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Article 1.

Amendment to Law No. 1/99 of January 13

The Articles 7 and 11 of Law No. 1/99 of January 13 go on to have the following

wording:

" Article 7.

(...)

1-(...)

2-(...)

3-The journalists have the right to the protection of texts, images, sounds or drawings

resulting from the exercise of freedom of expression and creation, whether produced

for a journalistic enterprise within the framework of a contract of employment whether they are

provided in the framework of a service contract.

4-Are covered by the protection scheme provided for in the preceding paragraph

original and archive works, in the possession of companies for which they were

originally carried out or that these have obtained by the acquisition effects of

establishments or the estate of third parties.

Article 11.

(...)

1-The journalists have the right to refuse the disclosure of their sources of information,

it may not have its silence to suffer any direct or indirect sanction.

2-Directors and media companies will not be able to reveal such sources

when they have knowledge, unless express consent of the person concerned.

3-(eliminated)

4-(eliminated) "

Article 2.

Addition to Law No. 1/99 of January 13

The following articles are adjourned to Law No. 1/99 of January 13:

" Article 7-A

Regime of Protection

The protection regime on the journalistic works implies:

a) prior permission of any use of the creations outside the organ of

media for which they have been produced and of the respective electronic edition;

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b) The integrity of the work, and may not this be amended without the express permission

of its author;

c) The signature of the work;

d) The faculty of the journalist prevent a work from its archived and in the meantime

outdated is disclosed inside or outside the information body for which it was

drawn up, whenever its deferred disclosure or in a different context may

induce a diverse interpretation of the initial intention of its author and with risk to the

your honour and professional reputation;

e) The possibility for the journalist to object to which a journalistic text can be used

on a support that does not have the nature of a media organ on the terms

legal;

f) The right to a retribution for the reuse of the works outside the organ to which

originally were intended, and of the respective electronic edition. "

Article 7-B

Extent of protection

Protected works are considered in the terms set out in the Code of Author's Law and

of the Rights Condices and in this Law, the intellectual creations of the journalists by

any externalized mode, specifically the articles, interviews or reportage

that do not limit themselves to the dissemination of news of the day or the reporting of events

diverse with the character of simple information and which translate its capacity

individual of composition and expression.

Article 7-C

Additional retribution

The additional consideration, due for the reuses of the works that have been

authorized pursuant to the preceding Article, shall be established in a contract seat

of work or provision of services.

Article 7-D

Prior information

The intention to reuse journalistic works must be communicated in advance to the

author so that the latter can exercise the protection regime provided for in Article 7 A.

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Article 7-E

Right to reuse

1-The right of author on the respective creations confers on journalists the right to

reuse them outside of the information body for which they were produced,

in particular in the form of book or anthology audio, video or digital support, well

as in exhibitions or other events.

2-For the purposes of the preceding paragraph, the authors of printed or television images,

drawings or sounds are entitled to obtain free of charge from companies copies of quality

professional.

Article 7-F

Null clauses

1-The contractual clauses which, directly or indirectly, are prohibited

on the content of the moral rights of the author, specifically those that:

a) Excludes or limiting the right of the journalist to sign or make identifying the works of the

your authorship, whatever the mode of your communication to the public;

b) They confirm to the entity for which the works are produced, or to third parties, to

faculty to change the structure or sense of the protected work, or to introduce

any modifications that defile it or may affect the good name and reputation

of the author.

2-The contractual clauses that are also prohibited:

a) they indiscriminately establish the forms and their conditions of use,

both of time and place and price, of the journalistic works protected by the

author right or include unknown modes of exploitation at the time of

conclusion of the contract;

b) Visit obtaining the consent of the author for uses in communication organs

undetermined social, yet held, in whole or in part, by companies

participates or that integrate the same economic group from those specifically

identified in the contract as beneficiaries of the works protected by copyright law;

c) Visit to obtain the consent of the author for the communication to the public of the works

protected in any support, including digital, that is not specifically

provided for in the contract;

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d) Consagrem the early provision of the copyright law on the works that this comes

producing for a period of more than two years, or excludes the possibility of revision

of the clauses relating to the copyright fined that period;

e) Excludes the right to a special remuneration, in addition to the convenor, and

regardless of their publication, whenever the intellectual creation exceeds

clearly the performance, albeit zealous, of the function that the author was entrusted with,

or when of the work if they remove unforeseen advantages in the setting of the remuneration

agreed;

f) Excludes the right to the obtaining of additional compensation, to be focused on the

results of the farm, whenever there is a serious injury to an equity injury by

manifests disproportion between the author's orderings and the profits obtained by the

beneficiary entities of the transmission, originating in or derived, of the right of exploitation

about the protected work.

Article 7-G

Sanctionatory regime

To the infringement of the copyright provided for in this Law shall apply to the scheme

sanctionatory established in the Code of the Right of Author and the Rights Condices to

infractions of an identical nature. "

Assembly of the Republic, December 15, 2006

The Deputies,