The Associação República e Laicidade wrote to RTP denouncing what it considers the illegality of the dissemination of the Christmas message from the patriarch of Lisbon, and recalled that there is an opinion against this type of situation.
In the letter, sent before the broadcast of this evening’s message from Rui Valério, the association warned that the message was announced on several RTP channels, with RTP1 and others also broadcasting various religious ceremonies, namely a “Dominical Eucharist” (day 24th in the morning) and a “Mass for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord” (25th in the morning).
“The Republic and Secular Association considers that granting airtime on public television channels to any religious denomination violates the constitutionally defined principle of Secularity of the Portuguese Republic. This principle, to which all agents of the State, including public television, are obliged, is not compatible with the use of public resources to advocate and propagandize a religious faith, whatever it may be”, warns the association in the letter.
In which it further considers that, as there is already a specific space for the various religious communities (the program “The Faith of Men” on channel RTP 2 and Antena 1), the annual dissemination of the messages of the patriarch of the Catholic Church outside this space and ” in a format similar to airtime” constitutes “a privilege that is incompatible with the secular nature of the public service and must therefore end”.
The association also notes that the message happening this year, broadcast at 9pm on RTP1, is a setback in the secularization of RTP, as in 2022 the message was not broadcast.
And remember that there is an opinion from the Advisory Council of the Attorney General’s Office, according to which “all advertising intended to promote a religious confession, or which has religious ideas as its object, must be considered illicit, with the offender incurring administrative liability”.
2023-12-24 20:55:00
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