The mayor of Vila Real considered it “unacceptable that the interior territories, already subject to significant challenges in terms of social and territorial cohesion, are once again penalized with the reduction of essential services, such as press distribution”.
“Vila Real will not accept that its citizens are deprived of regular access to newspapers and magazines. This decision calls into question the right to information and worsens inequalities that we have long fought against. We cannot allow the Interior to be placed in a situation of structural disadvantage again”, he highlighted.
Alexandre Favaios therefore called on the Government to “take immediate measures to ensure the continuity of the service”, and recalled that the protocol signed in 2024 aimed to correct existing flaws and that the announced international public tender remains to be implemented.
“We call on the State to assume its responsibilities. Vila Real and the entire interior cannot be forgotten. Press distribution is a basic service in a democratic society and cannot be dependent on purely economic criteria”, he reinforced.
And he concluded that the municipality will remain “vigilant and available to collaborate with the entities involved, always defending the interests of the people of Vila Real and ensuring that the right to information is not jeopardized”.
In a statement, Vasp stated that “it is currently going through a particularly demanding financial situation, resulting from the continued decline in press sales and the significant increase in operating costs, which put the sustainability of the current daily press distribution coverage under severe pressure”, on the day that Correio da Manhã reported that there are “eight districts at risk of running out of newspapers from January onwards”.
Also on Thursday, the Minister of the Presidency stated that any public solution that helps ensure the distribution of the press in the national territory will always involve “competitive mechanisms” and not writing checks to a specific company.
For the Journalists’ Union, “the announced measure, which will come into force at the beginning of 2026, will have an immediate impact on access to information in several regions, specifically in the interior of the region”, highlighting that this decision “not only affects access to information by the population, but also seriously compromises the stability and rights of journalists working in the sector”.