With a population of ten million, the Portuguese market is dominated by five major state and private-sector media groups (Impresa, Cofina, Media Capital, Global Media and RTP), whose outlets include four national daily newspapers and four national TV news channels. There are also some non-profit journalistic projects, but their audience remains low. A quarter of municipalities lack local news media.

In general, the government and political parties respect the work of the media. Members or supporters of the far-right party Chega occasionally threaten or attack journalists, physically or verbally. After threatening journalists during the 2021 presidential elections, the party criticised media coverage of parliamentary work. 

Portuguese legislation hasn’t undergone any recent changes and continues to legally and constitutionally guarantee strong press freedom. Nevertheless, the media are not immune to judicial pressure. In 2023, journalists who had been under surveillance in 2018 as part of an investigation into judicial secrecy were found guilty. Earlier this year, Rui Pinto, the whistleblower who was the main source of the “Football Leaks” and “Luanda Leaks” stories, was given a four-year suspended prison sentence.

The increase in digital subscriptions to newspapers has not been enough to offset the financial losses due to the significant erosion in sales of print editions. Journalists' salaries, already low, have not been adjusted for inflation in recent years. The profession’s concerns further increased at the end of 2023 with the takeover by a mysterious Bahamian fund Global Media Group, which owns the country's two historic national dailies and the only news radio station. A third of its employees were subsequently laid off.

In this country where the work of journalists is generally respected, the media enjoy one of the highest levels of trust in Europe. Mistrust is nonetheless gaining ground among young people.

Journalists have been verbally and physically attacked in the course of their work. In addition to incidents involving the far-right Chega party, journalists have been attacked at football matches.