The total of journalists in Portugal has today been called to join a strike, the first in 42 years, to denounce low wages and job insecurity in an industry facing major difficulties.

The previous “general strike” of journalists in Portugal took place in 1982.

The protests come after earlier this week one of the country’s main media groups, Global Media, announced new plans to lay off around 20 workers, including around 10 journalists, due to “the complicated financial situation”.

Portugal’s public news agency Lusa is not broadcasting telegrams from midnight today, the journalists’ union announced, while “more than twenty” media outlets have been affected by the strike.

“Job insecurity and low wages” are “an obstacle to citizens’ right to information”, the journalists’ union, which called for today’s strike, underlined in a statement.

The strikers are mainly demanding “wage increases» to be able to deal with inflation and respect the labor law regarding compensation for overtime work.

Several rallies are scheduled to take place today in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra.

File photo