The First Communitarian Meeting of the Media promoted by the Presidency of the Regional Government of the Azores – Regional Department for the Communities- and by the Media Support Office took place in Horta, Faial Island, between December 3 and 5, 1999, with the presence of 65 participants from the Azores, the United States and Canada.

Objectives:

- Discuss the Portuguese Media in the communities;

- Gather the Media abroad and the present Azorean reality;

- Stimulate the interchange between the communities’ Media and the local Media;

- Call the attention to the importance of the news broadcasted in the Portuguese communities, in general, and Azorean, in particular.

Conclusions:

After three days of discussion the participants concluded that:

In terms of the Preservation of the Cultural Identity:

-         The Media abroad are vital in what concerns the defence of homeland values;

-         The Media constitute an historical resource of information, regardless the language;

Within the Communities:

-         The Media should assume a position of social, cultural and political involvement, namely in areas such as citizenship, teaching of Portuguese language, participation in the local political sphere and maintenance of social and communitarian work.

In terms of interchange between the Media in the Communities and in the Azores:

-         The necessity of professional training and the need to suit the product to the public and to follow the new technologies;

-         The availability to mutual collaboration and dialog;

-         The creation of a source of information about the Media abroad and in the Azores and the possibility of supporting the distribution of the communitarian press in the Azores;

-         The need of a plural and diverse programming abroad which suits the interests of the communities.

The participants also concluded that this kind of event should continue in the future.