Does she look like a spy?

247 - A full-page report published this Sunday in the newspapers O Globo and Extra, both from the Globo Organizations, points its guns at a competing group that is beginning to bother the established giants. Under the pretext of reporting on a Portuguese espionage scandal, the text highlights the case's connections to the Ongoing group, which has made significant media investments in Brazil in recent years. Ongoing, a partner of Portugal Telecom and indirectly of Oi, already controls the newspapers "O Dia," "Meia Hora," and "Brasil Econômico," as well as the iG internet portal. It belongs to businessman Nuno Vasconcellos and, in Brazil, is managed by his Brazilian wife, Maria Alexandra Vasconcellos.

The first act of hostility from national media families towards Ongoing occurred within the National Newspaper Association (ANJ), where the foreign ownership of the group was questioned – Brazilian law limits foreign capital participation in media to 30%. In the case of Ongoing, this was overcome due to the fact that Maria Alexandra is Brazilian.

Now, the second round of this dispute is related to the espionage case. Read the report from the newspaper O Globo below:

Espionage scandal puts Portuguese super-minister in the spotlight.

Jair Rattner Special

LISBON — A scandal threatens the position of the most influential minister in the Portuguese government. Miguel Relvas, head of the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, is involved in a story that includes spies who favor private companies, monitor the press, and even threaten to release private information about a journalist who questioned the minister.

"It's a very complicated situation for the government, since Relvas is the number two in the government and controls the party. He is the most powerful minister after Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who owes his rise to power to him," explains political scientist André Freire.

It all began with an investigation into Jorge Silva Carvalho, the former head of one of Portugal's intelligence agencies, the Strategic and Defense Information Service (SIED). In 2008, a journalist from the newspaper "Público" wrote an article about the secret services using sources from SIED. Carvalho then ordered an investigation into who had passed on the information, and to do so, it was necessary to know who had spoken to the journalist.

Since the service lacked the authority to break telephone secrecy and spy in Portugal, they used the wife of an agent who worked for the same mobile phone operator used by the reporter. With the contact list in hand, they began questioning all the agents who had called or texted the journalist—and the result was the opening of a police investigation.

During this period, Carvalho had left Sied and gone to work for the holding company Ongoing — owner, in Brazil, of the newspapers “Brasil Econômico”, “Marca” and “O Dia”. At Ongoing, he was president of the group's shared services company — human resources, accounting — and was part of the board of directors of two other companies. The invitation to join Ongoing came from the president, Nuno Vasconcelos, who was a member of the same Masonic lodge as Carvalho.

Report on the personal life of a former prime minister.

According to the Portuguese press, at Ongoing, Carvalho allegedly used Sied to create reports on individuals with whom the company was negotiating—and on adversaries. The president of the Impresa group—owner of SIC TV, the newspaper "Expresso," and the magazine "Visão"—and former prime minister from the same PSD party as Relvas, businessman Francisco Pinto Balsemão, had his personal life and business dealings exposed in a report.

“Almost 40 years after the establishment of democracy in Portugal, it is regrettable that this type of method continues to be practiced,” Balsemão said in a statement. Carvalho also allegedly took 1.800 files containing information when he left Sied.

Last month, the investigation reached Minister Miguel Relvas — also a member of the Freemasons — when Carvalho's cell phone was analyzed. Even after leaving SIED, Carvalho sent Relvas reports prepared by the secret service. Summoned to Parliament, Relvas said they were merely press reviews and guaranteed that he had never had access to confidential reports. He said he had only met with the former head of the spies on social occasions.

Although the investigation is being conducted in secrecy by the courts, the information continued to be published. It was revealed that Carvalho allegedly proposed to Relvas, in 2011, a restructuring of Sied, placing people he trusted in key positions.

Carvalho's agenda, which was on his cell phone, also revealed a meeting with Miguel Relvas a few days before the latter took up his post in the government. They were negotiating an investment between Ongoing and the company of which he was an administrator. Summoned to the Legislature again last Wednesday, Relvas apologized for not having revealed the meeting with Carvalho. He claimed it was a "lapse".

After the speech in Parliament, Maria José Oliveira, a political journalist for the newspaper "Público," contacted the minister with further questions. Irritated, Relvas reportedly called the newspaper's political editor, threatening a government boycott. He also threatened to publish information about the journalist's private life online—she is dating a member of the opposition Socialist Party.

The case has not yet had political consequences for Relvas. In Parliament, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho defended his deputy, saying that "Relvas behaved correctly and transparently." But, according to political scientist André Freire, Relvas's situation is fragile.

"There is a very strong probability that he lied to Parliament, and his reaction to the journalist he threatened reveals that he lost his temper. The threat was childish. The story is hardly edifying; all these people belong to Masonic lodges, which seem to have transformed into a secret society of exchanging favors. Furthermore, the case has turned the Portuguese secret services into a joke," he summarized.