CCPJ

The Comissão da Carteira Profissional de Jornalista (Journalists’ Professional License Committee) has the responsibility to grant, renew, suspend or revoke the following licenses:

• Professional Journalist License
• Intern Temporary License
• Equivalent to Journalist ID Card
• Foreign Correspondent ID Card
• Collaborator ID Card
• Collaborator in the Portuguese Communities ID Card

In order to know which professional license is the most adequate to your situation, click on the different cards to get the information on each of them.

All the applications regarding professional licenses can be submitted on the CCPJ online platform available at the Private Area.

You can visit the CCPJ office from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Monday-Friday), but you can also contact us by phone (213 424 303) until 5:30 p.m..

You can also contact us by fax (+351 213 221 229) or e-mail (carteira.press@ccpj.pt).

All professional licenses granted by the CCPJ have a 2 year period of validity (counting from the date they are issued), after which the licenses expire. Therefore, its biennial renewal is mandatory.

As for the Intern Temporary license, it is valid for all of the internship period.

• You can submit your application via the CCPJ online platform, available at the Private Area.

  The applications depend on the documents required for each license. 
  
  In order to know which documents are required to each application, please click on the following links:

  • Professional Journalist License
  • Intern Temporary License
  • Equivalent to Journalist ID Card
  • Foreign Correspondent ID Card
  • Collaborator ID Card
  • Collaborator in the Portuguese Communities ID Card

The prices for the granting/renewing of any professional licenses can be paid by:

• Debit card at the CCPJ office (MB Way available);
• Bank transfer – (IBAN: PT50 0018 0000 39655258001 56 - Santander Totta);
• Bank deposit – (Account Number: 0000 39655258 001 - Santander Totta);
• Check;
• Postal Money order.

The license can be picked up personally at the CCPJ or the Journalists’ Union (if your application was submitted via this entity) offices, during opening hours. If you wish, we can send you the license by registered mail with confirmation of delivery. In this case, there is an additional fee of € 4.20 on the license price.

You can download the forms from our website. They are also available at the CCPJ or the Journalists’ Union offices.

You can also ask us to send them to you by e-mail, regular mail or fax.

These are the options to submit your professional license application:

1. On our online platform, (available here);
2. At the CCPJ office (Rua Artilharia 1, n.º 107 1099-502 Lisbon), by registered mail or by e-mail (carteira.press@ccpj.pt).

You can see who is a Member of the CCPJ in its charter.

Yes. You can appeal to administrative courts, in accordance with article 18 A, number 6 of the Journalist Statute (Law 1/99 dated January 13^th, further amended by Law 64/08 dated November 6^th).

Without prejudice to the right of appeal, any applicant can write a complaint to the CCPJ, concerning any decision (or part of it) that is unfavorable to him/her.

The complaint must be presented to the Secretariat in the first 30 days after the applicant is notified. 

If your license is expired, and you don’t renew it, you no longer have the right to legally hold it.

Given that in order to pursue the profession of journalist it is indispensable to hold the respective professional license (or an intern temporary license, an equivalent to journalist ID card or foreign correspondent ID card), the fact that you don’t renew the card can cause a proceeding of administrative offence started by the CCPJ against the journalist and the company or companies he/she works for. In fact, these offences can lead to the following fines:

          a) from 1000 € to 7500 € for journalists;
          b) from 2500 € to 15000 € for companies who have journalists working for them without valid licenses.

According to the article 117 of the Labor Code, if the pursuing of a given activity legally obliges the worker to hold a professional license, its absence causes the nullity of the contract.

When the professional license is taken from the worker, resulting from a decision that does not allow an appeal, the contract is terminated as soon as both parties are notified of the decision.

However, the fact that the license is not renewed during the legal period does not prevent its renewal in a later moment. In this case, the following increases in the license price take place:

First 30 days after the license expires - 50% increase in the license price; 
31 days after the license expires - 100% increase in the license price.