Purchase of “Nascer do Sol” and “Inevitável” by Alpac: ERC says the law allows funds to own media outlets

The president of ERC noted today that the regulator acted within its means in the analysis of the owner of the newspapers Nascer do Sol and Inevitável, pointing out that the law allows investment funds to own media bodies .

“The ERC is bound by the principle of legality, it only does what the law allows, what the law allows, and the law allows investment funds to own social media bodies”, said Helena Sousa on the Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports Committee.

The Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) was called to parliament at the request of the Left Bloc parliamentary group regarding the acquisition of the newspapers Sol and I and the alleged links to funds associated with the Government of Hungary and the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

In an exhibition in which she discussed the process since the purchase of publications, Helena Sousa noted that as it was “an operation that involved the press, two newspapers without market leadership, ERC did not have the opportunity to carry out a preliminary assessment through a request for an opinion from the Competition Authority [AdC]which may happen in other circumstances”.

According to the president, when Alpac Capital announced the purchase of Newsplex, in 2022, it updated the information on the shareholder structure with ERC, “in compliance with the legal transparency regime”.

“After analyzing the elements communicated, no evidence was identified at the time that would justify additional steps”, explained the president of the ERC Regulatory Council.

However, with the publication of a journalistic investigation by the weekly Expresso, in collaboration with media bodies in France and Hungary, which addressed ” possible indirect investments by the Hungarian State in the purchase of Euronews”, the ERC “then decided to start by checking whether Newsplex fully complied with the transparency law”.

After checking the elements transmitted by Newsplex, the ERC concluded that it “only partially complied with the transparency law and respective regulations”, a condition that led to several requests for updating documentation.

In the process of complying with the transparency law, the ERC detected, in 2022, “a flow of capital” in the form of “inflow of money as supplies by Sunny Meridian [que detinha, então, 91% da Newsplex]which converted into a capital increase in 2023”.

For ERC, this movement “should be investigated in more detail, as it could constitute a power of influence” and, ultimately, from the perspective of defending editorial independence.

Helena Sousa pointed out that, for now, “practically everything has been resolved” in terms of transparency and formalities.

The exception, according to the president of the ERC, concerns “an issue that has to do with the financial flow that occurred precisely at the stage in which Euronews was purchased”. “That [fluxo] Yes, it raised questions and a desire to delve deeper”, he noted.

At her hearing, Helena Sousa once again insisted that ERC does not have the human resources and legal instruments to act in the best way in different situations.

“The ERC needs other conditions, it needs to review its statutes”, he reinforced, highlighting that deputies “have a role to play”.

“It is necessary to review the legislation. In the other meeting, in the other meeting we had here, in December, I spoke and we all talked about the importance of reviewing the legislation”, remembered.

In addition to the regulator’s statutes, Helena Sousa suggested that a review of the transparency law is necessary.

“For us, the transparency law is a useful law, but it needs to be revised, and we know that it needs to be revised because we have tried to implement it,” he said, adding that he is preparing a document that he hopes “will be used as a working basis” for MPs.

The news released by Expresso in April realized that Portuguese businessman Pedro Vargas David – son of former PSD MEP Mário David, political advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – who owns the newspapers Nascer do Sol and i Inevitável – , “received 45 million from the Hungarian State” to buy the European television channel Euronews, of which he is currently president of the Board of Directors.

On this subject, Helena Sousa said that the ERC “does not have any conditions to investigate the Hungarian State” or Viktor Orbán.