Before the court of public opinion: Imprensa de Lisboa and the 1921 press workers’ strike

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is a study of A Imprensa de Lisboa, a periodical created by professional associations of journalists, printers and distributors of Lisbon newspapers in 1921, during a period in which they were on strike. This conflict brought a significant portion of the Portuguese capital’s press to a standstill, except for a handful of publications, namely those created in that same context. Alongside and against A Imprensa de Lisboa, newspaper companies published O Jornal. Meanwhile, A Batalha, the official organ of the General Confederation of Labour, to which the unions on strike were affiliated, continued to be published. The aim of this research is, firstly, to analyse the relation between the goals of the strike and A Imprensa de Lisboa’s coverage not only of the conflict itself, but also of a set of other topics and events seen as matters of interest to a wider public opinion, i.e. beyond the interests of the industrial working class. Secondly, it aims to identify similarities and differences between the agenda and contents of A Imprensa de Lisboa and A Batalha, to clarify to what extent the strategy pursued by the former meant keeping a distance from the points of view commonly voiced in the workers’ press.