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An overview of research and examples of good practice in the EU Member States, 1995-2000, on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Vienna (EUMC) by the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER) - edited by Jessika ter Wal, Vienna, February 2002.

by Anabela Franqueira, University of Coimbra, Centre for Migration Studies

In the last 25 years, Portugal, like the other countries of the southern Mediterranean, has witnessed a new phenomenon: beyond the condition of being a country of emigration, it became at the same time a country of immigration. There was a very large flow of African immigrants, particularly coming from the former Portuguese colonies. Since the 1980s Portugal has seen a steady increase in foreign residents, from 29,000 in 1975 to 191,000 in 1999. In the same period immigration started to exceed emigration. Since 1980, there was also a high proportion of immigrants from African countries, as compared with those from Europe and Southern America. As of the 31st December, 1999, the percentage of foreign residents in a total population of 10 million inhabitants was 1.9%. (Instituto Nacional de Estatística, 2000).

Immigration to Portugal before 1980 involved different groups, mainly Europeans and South Americans, but in particular Brazilian immigrants, and a different socio-economic integration than that of the immigrants who came to Portugal after that date and who were predominantly Africans.

Until the mid-1980s the population of non-European origin, either of Portuguese or foreign nationality, did not present particular problems of integration into the Portuguese society. This revealed a great capacity of adaptation, thanks to their high professional qualifications, a strong entrepreneurial capacity and privileged links with their ethnic communities of origin. After the mid 1980s, the same situation is no longer visible. To this contributes the increase of foreigners in Portugal with minor job qualifications and less economic resources, while with the progressive integration into the European Union there started a great phase of economic growth started and the demand for labour increased.

This means that the occupational structure of the foreign population, when compared to that of the domestic population, was biased both both towards the top rung of Brazilian and European immigrants and towards the bottom rung of immigrants from former Portuguese colonies in Africa, of the occupational ladder. Immigrants of African origin mainly arrive in Portugal to work in public constructions, occupying the places left available by the Portuguese emigration to Europe. They also work in domestic labour and in restoration, mostly in degrading working conditions. Therefore, immigrants of African origin do not really occupy labour vacancies needed for the Portuguese, and the identification of foreigners as a cause of problems, such as unemployment, is thus not justified and indicates that their vital importance for the national economy is not recognised.

The most recent immigration to Portugal comes from Eastern Europe. From January to March 2001, some 24,125 immigrants have legalised their position, most of them of Eastern European origin, after the law to regulate the conditions of entry, stay, leaving and withdrawal of foreigners from the national territory was amended.

The significant changes regarded the introduction of a new article which states that foreign citizens without a work visa are able to apply for a work permit as long as they have a labour contract (autorização de permanência), which is issued for the period of one year and renewed for a maximum of five years.

The action of the Government in matters of immigration and ethnic minorities is subject to the constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination of citizens, as regards race (Art. 13 of the Constitution) and to the principle of equalisation of rights between nationals and foreigners (Art. 15) with the exceptions foreseen in the Constitution and in the law.

During the 1990s two procedures to legalise immigrants were enacted in Portugal. The first one was in 1992, when approximately 39,000 immigrants obtained legal status, and the second was in 1996 when some 35,000 individuals were granted a residence permit. Until 8 March 2001, 7,210 foreigners from Ukraine, 1,040 from Russia, 1,543 from Romania and 2,055 from Moldavia have legalised their status.

Nevertheless, one cannot ignore the difficulties in the practical implementation of these principles. These problems are due to the late recognition of the need to introduce measures for the integration of immigrants and the aggravation of the effects of processes of social exclusion, such as in the labour market, housing and healthcare, that are now more difficult to revert.

In 1995, the programme of the Socialist Party referred for the first time to the integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities. In the same year, the government appointed a High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities (HCIEM), which forms part of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The creation of this organisation was due to the recognition of the "new challenges faced by Portugal as a country of immigration, which requires social integration measures for migrant families and ethnic minorities in general, in order to avoid situations of social exclusion that generate racism and xenophobia."

The High Commissioner's mandate is to accompany and support at interministerial level the integration of immigrants. With the creation of the High Commissioner for Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in 1995, the public powers have recognised what until then had been banished to the category of "virtual reality".

The HCIEM collaborates with associations of immigrants and ethnic minorities, social partners, government departments and the public administration, with the aim of contributing to:

• improve the living conditions of immigrants in Portugal, in such a way as to ensure their integration into society while respecting their original identity and culture;

• ensure that all citizens who legally reside in Portugal enjoy an identical degree of dignity and opportunities, in such a way as to eliminate discrimination and fight racism and xenophobia;

• supervise the action of the various sections of the civil service with responsibility for the entry of foreign citizens to Portugal, their stay and departure, while respecting the competencies of those departments and of the members of the government who are specifically charged with such matters;

• collaborate in defining and ensuring the supervision and stimulation of policies intended to actively combat exclusion;

• propose measures, particularly those of a normative nature, designed to assist immigrants and ethnic minorities.

Integration is a process in which both immigrants and ethnic minorities aim at a full participation as citizens in the society in which they live. Even when the logic of the politics of integration, as in Portugal, is to promote the integration as an individual citizen, it is always possible to the immigrant or the ethnic minority to adopt a more individualistic or more communitarian strategy of integration.

Communities may also be more open or closed to inter-ethnic marriages; in this respect, we have seen that African immigrants coming from countries of official Portuguese language, the so called "Palop" countries, are more open than for example the Portuguese Roma.

The concepts of immigrant and ethnic minorities are not synonymous. That is, immigrants can be, but need not be, part of an ethnic minority and some ethnic minorities, like the Roma, can be national citizens. When we designate the Roma Community as an ethnic minority, one cannot forget the multiple meanings produced by the undifferentiation of the concept of ethnic minority on the one hand, and that of immigrant on the other, which imply necessarily rights of a different nature to each of them. This confusion does not allow an adequate analysis of the migratory phenomenon and at the same time prevents the independent consideration of specific problems of the ethnic minorities.

The Roma community has been in Portugal since the 15^th century and they are considered as Portuguese citizens, at least since the Portuguese Constitution of 1822 and the Constitutional Charter of 1826. This legal status eliminated the inequalities regarding race and has recognised the Portuguese citizenship to those born in Portuguese territory. In this sense, the nearly 40,000 thousand Portuguese Roma citizens living in Portugal have the same social dignity and are equal before the law (Art. 13 of the Constitution).

The Roma community has nine associations. In addition, an association for Roma women was constituted in 2000. The Roma associations are not all exclusively constituted of members of Roma origin, as they also have non-Roma members. Two NGOs that work exclusively with this population are the Obra Nacional da Pastoral dos Ciganos (belonging to the Catholic Church) and the Igreja Evangélica de Filadélfia dos Ciganos de Portugal (Protestant Church).

A large number of non-governmental organisations are working in the area of immigration. These organisations are located primarily within the more problematic areas and neighbourhoods, where the percentage of immigrants is particularly high, and they thus concentrate on the specific problems felt by those communities. In general, all the local NGOs have as their main goal to promote the integration of immigrants into Portuguese society, such as Associação Unidos de Cabo Verde (Cape Verdian United Association). Other NGOs operate at the national level and function as pressure groups, promoting immigrants' rights and combating racial discrimination. Three different types of associations exist at the national level: the first dedicates its work to immigrants’ rights in general (such as Obra Católica das Migrações, a Catholic charity institution, and trade unions which target immigrants’ labour rights); the second includes organisations that deal with the rights of the main ethnic communities living in Portugal (Cape Verde Association, Guinea Association, and the Casa do Brasil); and the third aims to promote equality and combat discrimination against certain groups of individuals (SOS Racism and Olho Vivo).

Since 1995, several legislative initiatives have been taken in order to promote the integration of immigrants and to fight discrimination and racism. First, the Reciprocity Law of 1996 allows citizens coming from the European Union, and also from Cape Verde, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay to vote and present themselves as candidates in local elections. Also citizens from Argentina, Norway and Israel are now allowed to vote in local elections.

Secondly, a Law of 1996 established for the first time in Portugal a contribution within the non-contributory scheme of social security and a programme of social integration to guarantee to individuals (with legal residence) and their families resources that contribute to the satisfaction of their minimum needs, in order to contribute to a positive and progressive social and professional integration.

Thirdly, another Law of 1996 created legal support for the acquisition or the renovation of family housing (legal immigrants included) that are covered by the PER (Special Plans of Relocation) programme. The aim was to eradicate slum neighbourhoods, in those areas where they proliferate most: in the metropolitan areas of Oporto and Lisbon.

Fourthly, the new Foreigners' Labour Law of 1998 has eliminated quantitative restrictions (being discriminatory restrictions in the access to the labour market) in the recruitment of workers, with the aim to fight employment in the informal economy. The principle of equality in recruitment and in working conditions independently from national origin, that was thus applied is in line with the Florence Declaration defended by the European partners in October 1995.

According to recent studies on racism, Portugal may constitute an example of a society that is formally anti-racist but in which racist attitudes persist. This paradox is explained through the different concepts of racism that stem from the position one assumes towards the anti-racist social norm that has progressively developed in western societies since the 1940s and which condemns expressions of traditional racism. A concept of prejudice or flagrant racism is shown as different from subtle racism, which means that those who are subtly racist accept the anti-racist norm as a way of being socially correct and not being punished for their actions in public life. The authors conceive the non-racist as one who internalises the norm as part of a value system based on equality. He also rejects all forms of racism, including those that are socially accepted. The studies mentioned before point to the conclusion that in Portugal, as in the rest of Europe, the anti-racist social norm exists only for flagrant racism, but not for subtle racism. One could also say that in Portugal, not only is racism an unassumed attitude, but also that militant racism is extremely rare.

Recently, however, criticism has been made that when considering the scale used to measure the concept of subtle racism, there are some items that, only by adopting a highly inflated concept of racism can be considered as indicators of racial prejudice. That is, respondents were asked to value the factual similarities or differences in the religion, language or even values taught to children in the "black" minority culture, as opposed to the transmission of these values in the majority population. But it is argued that the given answers cannot be taken as synonymous of prejudice, but only as indicators of the knowledge or ignorance about objective facts. To ask, on the other hand, if frequently one feels sympathy or admiration for this same minority does not seem to be a good way to measure prejudice, either. If the expression of antipathy towards a minority group is considered as a sign of racism, then it is not acceptable to claim that racism does not exist only on the basis of the expression of general attitudes of sympathy and admiration.

The production of scientific research on racism and cultural diversity in the Portuguese media is extremely limited. The information reproduced in this part of the report is the result of a factual analysis done to existing research projects concerning the role of the media in public opinion. The existing projects are found in two publications, which cover the period as of the mid 1980s until 1989, and the years 1993-1995 respectively, and one research on the 1997 coverage on anti-racism, which is reported in the following section. In this section we will also discuss the results of a workshop on Media and Racism organised in the framework of the first National Round Table held in April 2000.

The first study was based on a press analysis of two newspapers: the daily Diário de Noticias, and the weekly Expresso. The author justifies the selection of these periodicals because of their dominant reference in the social arena: they both have a large readership and circulation and they produce general information. Also, their political and public positioning, more central, may stand as a pattern in opinion making. The time frame of this research goes from January 1983 to July 1989, for Diário de Noticias and from January 1987 to July 1989 for Expresso. Although the study is published prior to 1995, is not addressing precisely the issue of racism and the Mass Media, and provides a very partial view of the issue, it nevertheless reveals some important insights into the perception that the Portuguese have of foreigners.

The author starts by making three preliminary observations. First, reports on issues concerning Africans were not frequent. Secondly, in all cases the reports adopted a "social report" approach, whereas no editorials were dedicated to the theme. Thirdly, in comparison with other countries of the European Union, news on Africans always appeared as isolated texts. That is, the newspapers did not publish special issues or files on issue concerning them, such as the ones that can be found in other European newspapers.

Furthermore, the analysis showed that while certain nationalities were designated, on the other hand foreigners tended to be associated with specific occupations or traits, such as students, the Islamic community, and others. One of the categories that appeared frequently in the news (either by the frequency of the theme or by the permanence of the qualification) is that of Africans. Within this category, the nationality that is mentioned most frequently is that of the Cape Verdians, who appear almost as synonymous with the former. Regarding the attitude of the Portuguese towards this category, the information given by the analysed material expresses, on the one hand, the attitudes of the journalists and on the other the attitudes observed by them in the population. These attitudes are related to criminality and racism.

Regarding criminality, a certain fear is expressed by the Portuguese population, which is criticised by the journalists as an irrational fear that they, and the part of the population they consider themselves to be part of, do not share.

Regarding the problem of racism, no text was found in which this concept appears to be part of the Portuguese attitude. The information gathered results mainly from statements made by Africans that are not univocal: in some news texts, the opinions of these individuals show that there is no racism, whereas others contain statements about the existence of subtle racism in Portugal.

The attitudes clearly expressed by the journalists in the analysed texts range from curiosity in the ethnographic style adopted in the news relating with the Cape Verdian community, and sympathy in their own choice to dedicate a text to the problems of the Africans, to the complicity shown in the parallel established between the destiny and the mood of the Portuguese and that of the Africans, on the other.

This study does not allow to the conclusion that the general label of foreign residents does not exist as a consistent category in public opinion, nor do any clear attitudes or expectations exist regarding such a category. Moreover, social representations of African citizens who live in the periphery of the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Oporto in very precarious material conditions and, many times, in irregular situations are well developed and have a considerable impact on public opinion. In this context, the Cape Verdian community is represented most visibly, but it is not the only one. The attitudes portrayed in the newspapers represent a mixture of fascination and of repulsion, of sympathy and of what the press defines or classifies as racism. Regarding the other foreign communities, the representations are much more diffuse, what may be interpreted as a certain indifference, related probably to the low number of people that make up these communities.

This research project was published in November 1996 and was the result of an analysis on a sample of eight different newspapers (four dailies, namely, Público, Diário de Noticias, Jornal de Notícias and Diário Económico, and four weeklies, namely, Expresso, O Diabo, O Independente and Semanário), from the period 1993-1995. The project also included a few newspapers of limited circulation that focussed on the issue of Africans in Portugal.

Here, each year of the analysis matched a central problem that was thematised by the media, independently from other constant themes with the same or more importance. Thematisations depended either on extraordinary events, which made minorities object to reporting, or on the formulation of a theme by the political power and the media together. During three years of analysis, three large themes were identified in the press agenda: the case of the dislodged people in Camarate (a housing theme), the Vuvu case (legal entrance to Portuguese territory theme) and the Bairro Alto case (racist murder / physical violence theme).

The analysis of the news reports started by showing two important characteristics. First, it showed that there was a constant reference to people and institutions in power, in particular political and government institutions. In general, limited space and little continuous attention was dedicated to the citizen, the immigrant, and the lay people; so that news which concentrated on their positions appears less prominently, less extensively and was dropped sooner than news on political decision-making and institutional processes. The second characteristic observed was the use of headlines and leads with a sensationalist language, which could easily arouse alarm and even fear.

In addition, the press reports revealed an almost absence of images of Africans. In almost all images, the African, as citizen or immigrant appeared as a complement of the "Portuguese self". To this image were added stereotypes of marginality, poverty and exoticism. As stated in the preface to the book, this research recalled to those newsmakers who proclaim themselves as independent and objective in newsmaking, that they also manipulate the reproduction of information, even though unconsciously.

On the other hand, the study also showed that the journalist is, as any other professional, a product of formal and informal socialisation. Moreover, the production of news responds to mechanisms of unconscious manipulation, which are naturalised in the journalistic practice. The discourses produced by the mass media as well as by the opinion leaders reflect the interests, stereotypes and prejudice of the majority group.

Journalists and politicians are therefore leaders in forming public opinion, according to this study. Their privileged access to the media allows them to produce a discourse which reinforces the value order, the worries, the conception of the world and the beliefs of the elite. However, it seems that the representatives of associations of the civil society start having a privileged role in forming public opinion too.

The First Portuguese Round Table on Racism and Xenophobia, organised in April 2000 in Lisbon, had a workshop dedicated to the theme of Media and Racism. Although the discussion and the plenary section were quite emotive, the written conclusions do not embrace all the information that was entailed in this workshop. It was concluded that 'subtle racism' exits in Portugal and the Portuguese society is shying at the phenomenon of racism since it is not "politically correct" to be racist. The mass media treatment has tended towards sensationalism, thus ending up by favouring racism, either directly or indirectly. In fact, according to one of the speakers, Bruno Gonçalves, a representative of a Roma association, press articles having positive reference regarding minority groups are quite few. He furthermore observed the link established in the news between Roma and criminality. The Roma community is accused, in generalised terms, of drug trafficking. This portrayal has occasionally produced conflict in local communities.

This observation can be corroborated by a previous research project, which, on the basis of an analysis of a set of press surveys, concluded that the mass media often establish a clear relationship between immigrants or ethnic minorities, or both, and crime, one of the most obvious manifestations of xenophobia. As an example is the alarm built around riots by a group of "black" young people that occurred in Alhos Vedros, a village near Lisbon, in 1993. In the news on this event, political leaders were reported to have accused foreigners, in public meetings, of invading Portugal and stealing jobs from the Portuguese. In the same period, the Internal Security Services produced reports on the existence of "black" gangs, classifying them as the "main threat to the tranquillity of people, the integrity of personal belongings and the keeping of public order." Hence the stereotype of crime exists both for Roma people and "black" immigrants.

It has also beem found that the large majority of press articles that regard Roma individuals, the only Portuguese ethnic minority, report on negative social aspects that do not favour the community at all, whereas only a small proportion is dedicated to cultural aspects. Furthermore, it is claimed that the media, in Portugal, far from respect and show sensitivity towards the minorities. A great part of the journalists are responsible for building up the walls of intolerance with sensationalist and quite biased news that underline more and more the stigma and the negative stereotypes attached to this minority group.

An advertiser responsible for the production of anti-racist campaigns declared that advertising can also play an important role in the transmission of positive messages: it has sometimes played an important role in blocking negative values, and has used its techniques to "sell" positive images, like in the European Campaign "All Different, All Equal" or in the National Campaign of the Project "In Each Face...Equality", as strong images enhanced in advertising can be used to favour positive racial and inter-ethnic relations.

The conference Education for Tolerance was promoted by the Secretariado Coordenador dos Programas de Educação Multicultural of the Ministry of Education, in 1995. One of the papers presented in a workshop on the concrete and innovative attitudes towards tolerance dealt with The Role of the Mass Media in the Promotion of Tolerance, which can be mainly read as a critique of the situation in Portuguese media, with recommendations for improvement.

The media has as its main task to inform, to expose and to inquire on the existing reality. When considering the issue of promotion of tolerance one must face those who see the mass media from an utilitarian point of view, as a way to "straighten" or condition the world, to domesticate people and wills. To these people, the best is to not show, not to speak, not to write, but to hide and to ignore. This is a means of collective illusion, half way between censorship and self-censorship, and a totalitarian society. When regarding prohibition, we always know where it starts, but we never know where it ends. This is obviously a solution for intolerance. Simultaneously there are also those who see the mass media as a simple mirror of the society expecting it to be the transmitter of its values and qualities as well as its defaults and non-values. In a regime of disloyal competition where everything is a product of the laws of audience's shares, this perspective ends, like the Portuguese television experience reveals, in a show format for information.

The public interest is subverted, being reduced, in a primary way, to the audience's interests. In this model the space and the call for tolerance is more and more restricted. It is important that the reporter does not mix up nonsense with the right of opinion; he cannot forget the circumstances of tension, the emotion and the passion when people express themselves. The journalist must always take into account present the deontological rules of his work. If the journalist fulfilled strictly the Deontological Code it would solve, byitself, most part of the mistakes, the misuse, the deviation and perversity of the information. The author goes on exemplifying with the reporting of an international football match between a Portuguese and an Italian team (in a very well known news radio channel in Portugal- TSF), where the journalist covering the game ended up insulting lively the referee with several epithets and hysterically calling him "Turk, Turk, Turk".

With the almost exclusive interest of the political forces involved in power games and media control, with bodies of counter-power almost manipulated, with mass media companies fighting for audience rates, with a public opinion either disorganised or organised but powerless or just surrendered to the magic of TV, it would be the role of the journalist to expose this. However, the author states that he is not sure that the journalist wants, or is willing to assume such an attitude, or that he just may be able to do so. It seems like the future will not be very promising in this area.

In the framework of the European Year Against Racism, celebrated in 1997, many initiatives were organised in Portugal. Among them, the Seminar organised by the National Co-ordination Committee about The Role of the Mass Media to Fight Racism in October 1997, had the goal to analyse the mediatization of racism and, or racist incidents, the impact of information in prejudice and the role played by the media in influencing behaviours. In the framework of the European Year, the exhibition "Anne Frank - a Story for the Present" was organised, and it started being circulated throughout the country in November 1997. This has resulted from a protocol signed with Anne Frank House, in the Netherlands, with the aim to disseminate information and promote, among students and teachers, the values of tolerance and sensitivity regarding matters of racism, diversity and anti-Semitism.

The European Year Against Racism was also the basis for the development of a doctoral dissertation on the written press in Portugal, by a student of the University of Lisbon. He made an analysis of two daily newspapers regarding the coverage on the issue of racism and its social representation. In this research it is assumed that in the complex information society the mass media play a central role in the reproduction of racism ant antiiracism, due to its relation with other institutions and due to the structural influence in shaping and changing social cognitions.

The information produced in the two newspapers shows an absence of an alarmist and sensationalist news treatment. The research attributes to the Jornal de Notícias has a more conservative speech, showing some apprehension in the approach to the phenomenon, which is more centralised at the regional level. The other newspaper, the Público, has a more modern and heterogeneous discourse. Racism is a theme that deserves being commented by specialists in the area, either to explain it, or to focus on a more concrete subject, like the position of the Roma community.

According to the author, the analysis of the opinions and values expressed by the two newspapers shows that both disapprove of racist behaviour and represents the Roma community and "black" people as the main victims of intolerance and racial discrimination. On the basis of the reports in the Jornal de Notícias it was possible to conclude that, in general, the Portuguese do not have racist behaviour and that when they show such behaviour, this is not a reason for concern. On the other hand, the analysis of the Público reports reveals the existence of racist behaviour in the country, acknowledged as a reason for concern and reflection on the issue. The results produced by the analysis show that the two newspapers produce similar discourses, when the repulsion of racism and the need to fight it are concerned. In general, it is possible to conclude that the written press produces an anti-racist speech, but the Portuguese society is represented as being a vehicle of certain racist behaviour. Nevertheless, on the basis of the press analysis it was possible to conclude that, in general, there is no attitude of rejection towards immigrant communities, despite some concern regarding the future of Portuguese society. In this sense, it is legitimate to conclude that in the two newspapers analysed, racism in Portuguese society is of a rather dissimulated and implicit form. However, it can be said that the media tended to emphasise anti-racist discourses, and that this anti-racist orientation characterised the period under analysis.

In February 1998, the High Authority for Mass Media organised a Forum for the Mass Media, with nine different workshops. One of the workshops discussed the issue of The Role of the Mass Media and the Rights of Minority Groups. This workshop called attention to negative media practices. Indeed, it was found that the mass media frequently follow the uniformity of the globalisation process, with a discourse that tends to reflect many of the social doubts and ambiguities regarding minorities. The media were also criticised of transmitting and magnifying dominant stereotypes and prejudice.

Furthermore, behind a claim of objectivity may be hidden indifference, marginalisation or even intolerance towards these groups. It is difficult to find reports on the problems and points of view of the minority groups as well as their evaluation regarding important issues. Finally, it was found that the negative exploitation and offensive and discriminatory representation of isolated cases, or the mere exhibition of exotic or uncommon aspects regarding the minority group, are not uncommon in both entertainment and information programmes.

According to the organisations represented in the workshop, the mass media have to respect the constitutional and legal principles of the democratic state: the respect for the dignity of the human person, the respect for the rights, liberties and guaranties of the citizens and the equality of all persons independently of their ethnicity, belief or social origin. Therefore, it should not be accepted when the mass media, in order to increase their audiences, compromise on quality of information, and on the general principles set out by the law. Finally, the High Authority pointed out that the mass media have special responsibility in the field of education and in the promotion and incentive of values that allow and motivate the full exercise of citizenship. The High Authority for the Mass Media has not has received any specific cases of negative, prejudiced or biased reporting in the area of racism.

A Law of 1999 introduced the legal recognition of immigrant associations as well as the technical and financial State support for the development of their activities. The High Commissioner gives this recognition for immigrants and ethnic minorities to those associations that wish to be recognised as such, as long as they fulfil the appropriate conditions foreseen in the law. These recognised associations may have the following rights: to participate in the definition of the immigrants policies; to participate in the legislative processes concerning immigration; to participate in the consultative bodies in the terms defined by the law; to benefit from the right to public speech on the radio and television. Since the introduction of the law, 25 immigrant associations have already been legally recognised. The associations can be of national, regional or local scope, according to the number of members each association claims to have: that is, the number of associated members will determine if an association can be considered as being of local, regional or national range.

An anti-discrimination Law of August 1999 prohibits discriminatory practices based on "race", colour, nationality and ethnic origin. Article I states that the objective of this law is to prevent and prohibit racial discrimination in all its forms and sanction all acts that violate a person's basic rights or impede the exercise of economic, social or cultural rights for reasons such as nationality, colour, 'race' or ethnic origin. This Law also provides for an Advisory Committee for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination. Presided by the High Commissioner for Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities, the Committee is responsible for promoting studies on equality and racial discrimination, supervising enforcement of the law, and making legislative proposals considered suitable for the prevention of all forms of discrimination.

The law of 1996, introduced the possibility for immigrants, anti-racist and human rights associations to assist in a legal action against discrimination, together with the victim and the Prosecution, i.e. to formulate an accusation and to introduce evidence into the penal process. The individuals or organisations may constitute themselves as a civil party in a penal process except in the cases of clear opposition of the victim, whether such victim has requested his constitution as assistant, or not. This applies to crimes motivated by discriminatory attitudes based on 'race' or nationality, and especially to crimes foreseen in the Penal Code. The constitution of assistant, as proposed in the law, is free from payment to the court. The changes in the Penal Code included the reference to national or religious origin as well as the denial of crimes of war or against peace and humanity such as the denial of the holocaust and Nazi crimes.

On Portuguese Television there are no specific programmes aiming at immigrants and, or ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, a recent programme in 2000 had as a resident guest a Roma origin young university student for an approximate period of six months. This programme has a talk show format (formato de conversa de café) and is weekly transmitted, in the second channel of the Portuguese Public Television Service. The programme is called "Travessa do Cotovelo" and its objective is to discuss in an informal way, actually around a coffee-shop table, certain pertinent and actual themes. In two of the programmes two specific themes were discussed regarding immigration and the Portuguese Roma community. These programmes discussed the issue of integration and the problems that these communities face.

The High Authority for Mass Media (Alta Autoridade para a Comunicação Social) is a regulatory body that aims to safeguard the right to information, the freedom of the press, the independence of the mass media, the fair and balanced reporting of information, freedom of speech, and a guarantee as to the exercise of the right to public speech and political response.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities disposes of a large archive of empirical documentation available for public consultation. This includes a collection of press clippings from 1996, namely a database of the news published in the written press regarding immigrants and ethnic minorities in Portugal. Simultaneously, the HCIEM Office also disposes of a video archive on relevant programmes regarding the issue of immigration and racism from 1996 onwards.

In the last ten years, Portugal, as a new country of immigration, has been witnessing the growing importance of all the issues related to the phenomena of racism and xenophobia. Although more scientific research is now being produced, the area of immigration and the mass media still lacks information and research.

The existing research indicates that Portuguese media are not free from stereotypical representations. An interesting and typical feature is the positive complicity expressed and the accepted similarities between Africans and Portuguese as well as the absence of assumed and declared racist attitudes.

The reported studies found that the press articles seldom refer and identify the anonymous citizen, the Africans, the immigrants and the ethnic minorities, particularly when reporting on positive references. The pictures also prime for the absence of these groups, while journalists mainly follow the dictates of reaching audience rates, and the temptation of the most popular discourses often stand as a barrier to the implementation of ethical and deontological codes on the part of the journalists. They often tend to sensationalism, emphasising the negative aspects of these communities, resorting to routine reporting which requires least time and effort. This behaviour leads the journalist to misuse and distort information.

Nevertheless, existing research has also made visible the role played by the mass media in the reproduction of discourses of anti-racism, particularly when the press is dominated by some specific thematization, such is the case regarding the European Year against Racism. In this case, the issue of racism even deserved being commented by specialists in the different analysed newspapers. This positive role can also be transmitted through advertisement campaigns aiming the fight against racism and the promotion of tolerance.

After having discussed the existing research, it can be concluded that it would be extremely important to develop new research in this area. The data and information available at the HCIEM may prove to be very useful in a future possible research project regarding the role of the mass media in the social construction of behaviour, attitudes and values towards immigrants and ethnic minorities in the Portuguese society.