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The President of the Republic sent a message to the XI National Broadcasting Conference, which is being held in Vila Real, from 14 to 16 November.

The text of the President’s message is as follows:

"I greet all the participants in this XI National Broadcasting Conference, as well as the organizing body, the Portuguese Broadcasting Association. Although I am not joining you in Vila Real, I believe that words, especially when said and felt, can surmount the physical presence and the image. The broadcasting professionals, more than anyone else, are aware of the importance of the spoken word and, for this very reason, well understand how warm greetings can be, if even from a distance.

In our days – and contrary to what many often believed – radio has not lost importance as a means of communication. On the contrary: a recent work, with which all of you are familiar, arrives at the conclusion that the Portuguese trust broadcast information. In the «Study of Reception of Media Means», the first great research work carried out regarding the relations of the Portuguese with the «media», the majority of the people polled considered radio as the most credible source of information. This does not happen by chance. In addition to the natural functions of leisure and entertainment, it is unquestionable that radio has the highest credibility as a means of information. We must thus be heedful to everything that crosses the radio electric space. Radio has its own rhythm, which favours thought and a deepness in the approach to the most diverse topics. Radio permits creating areas of dialogue and of contradiction amongst citizens such as, possibly, no other means of mass communication. Radio allows reaching the most varied types of public and is one of the main tools of contact of many Portuguese with national and international reality.

The exemption and pluralism of the media are essential values for the quality of our democracy. I have approached this theme in many of my speeches and come back to it today, since I consider that the media also have a role to play in this fight for the quality of democracy. Without yielding to demagoguery or to easy populism, we have to launch an untroubled and objective discussion on this issue, a discussion to which all the media will necessarily have to be called. Because the democratic quality of a regime does not solely belong to formal institutions or to the politicians. The democratic quality of a regime demands and presupposes informative pluralism, the independence of the media, and the immunity of journalists to illegitimate pressures. The public powers have an essential duty: not to interfere, directly or indirectly, in the free exercise of the activity of the media; on the other hand, the media and its professionals are demanded a responsible attitude and a firm defence of its independence and freedom.

Radio has known how to maintain exemption, quality and pluralism. For this reason, it deserves the trust of the Portuguese. And for this reason too, it deserves my greatest and warmest regard.

Aníbal Cavaco Silva"