"Due to technical problems..." - Stuart Pinfold's Blog

Translation: (thanks to Joel Machado)

It’s half past 8 GMT – you are with London This Evening from the BBC, I’m Zoraida Machado.

Good evening. This is the last transmission of the BBC Portuguese for Africa. In this last half-hour in your company, we will hear the stories and experiences of those who work and have worked at the Portuguese service from BBC…

“The President Pereira got sick and I knew and I sent it to the BBC, then it was a God Help Us because it was a secret of State”

…of my colleagues, analysts and commentators…

“The news about the ending of the Portuguese transmissions from the BBC is sad news, sad for the Portuguese speaking world…”

…and from you who followed us during these 72 years.

“For the foreign policy of Britain, one of the promoters’ countries, it isn’t interesting anymore, but for us, we will greatly miss it.”

You are with the BBC.

We start with the BBC world news presented tonight by Gonçalo de Carvalho.

The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has spoken to his supporters in a square in the centre of the capital Tripoli. Gaddafi denounced foreign intervention and maintained an attitude of defiance, appealing to the crowd to arm themselves and defend the nation and its oil from protesters who already control large areas of the country. Meanwhile, the opposition protesters have entered a suburb in the east of Tripoli. According to some sources, the protesters are accompanied by military deserters.

Tripoli itself is apparently defended by an elite military unit commanded by Kamiz, one of Colonel Gaddafi’s sons. Thousands of people are crossing the borders to neighboring countries seeking to escape the violence resulting from Gaddafi’s resistance to the protesters. According to the International Organization for Migrants, hundreds of people from sub-Saharan Africa are crossing the border with Niger.

More street protests are happening across the Arabic world. In Iraq where people were protesting against corruption and economic difficulties, at least 11 people have been killed in confrontations with the security forces. In Tunisia tens of thousands of people demanded the resignation of the transition government created after the overthrow of the President Ben Ali. In Yemen, the government mobilised its supporters to counter-balance a manifestation of tens of supporters of the opposition. And in Jordan, police says that six thousand protesters took to streets which are strongly patrolled.

The United Nations has warned that Ivory Coast is on the verge of a new civil war. The post-election violence between the two major presidential candidates has already spread from Abidjan to other areas of the country. In the west, former rebels who joined Alassano Uatara, recognised by the International Community as the winner of the presidential elections in November, captured a town that was held by troops loyal to the current President, Laurent Gbagbo.

According to news from France, the ministry of foreign affairs, Michelle Alio Marie, will quit in the next few days because of the way they have handled the crisis in Tunisia. According to unidentified members of the government, she will be substituted by Alain Jupé.

In football, Tunisia has beaten Angola at the final of the Chan, held in Sudan. The result was 3-0 to the Tunisians.

Finally, 3 of the language services from the BBC, some with more than 70 years of transmissions, will end today by decision of managers as a result of the budget cuts ordered by the British government. One of the services affected is “Portuguese for Africa” that had large audiences in the PALOPs (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa, or Portuguese-Speaking African Countries) but which also was heard in Portugal and East Timor.

That was the news with Gonçalo de Carvalho. You are listening to London This Evening from the BBC.

Once again, very good evening. You are with the last transmission of London This Evening from the BBC. Today, the BBC says goodbye to its listeners with a special transmission. Over the next 30 minutes you can write to us for the last time…

We will start this programme with Luis, who brings us the highlight moments from the 72 years of the BBC Portuguese service – from June 4th 1939 until today, February 25th 2011.

“(The voice of London, the BBC program dedicated to the listeners of Portugal and the Portuguese colonial empire.)”

That was the way the BBC started to transmit in Portuguese, more than 72 years ago. The BBC World Service had been created just before in 1932, to help the British government promote the English language and British values and interests abroad, an objective that deepened during the second world war. The service in Portuguese started on June 4th 1939 when the Nazi propaganda intensified before the beginning of the war with the impact felt in the dictatorial regimes in the Iberian peninsula, namely of Salazar in Portugal and Franco in Spain. The first transmissions from the BBC to Portugal coincided with a period of very tight censorship. Through the BBC, Portugal had access to independent information and became more aware of its isolation at an international level. But it August 1957, the service was closed – it was considered less important to British interests.

“(This is BBC London in its last transmission of the Portuguese services to Portugal)”

It was reopened in 1963. The taking of Goa by the Indian government, the growing of nationalist feelings in the Portuguese colonies at the time, and the freedom wars forced the service to reopen to regain listeners. In 1967, a powerful Atlantic transmitter would be installed to serve the growing Portuguese-speaking communities in Africa: the African elite, the militaries and the colonels. Carlos Alves was working at the Portuguese service at the time; his voice helped a lot of listeners to learn how to speak English through the radio.

“(I am Carlos Alves and here with me in the studio is Amanda Carlton…)

Carlos Alves, who started at the BBC in 1969 and who worked there for more than 2 decades, remembers some of the moments more memorable of this agitated period of changes:

“All this occurred because of the fall of the dictator in Portugal. The BBC was already reporting the events in Guinea-Bissau, in Angola and in Mozambique. It was the movements of liberation. The BBC always tried to be independent, for instance, Jonas Savimbi was interviewed here in London and the BBC wanted to present itself as giving voice to all movements of liberation. I went to Portugal in 1975 and I was truly amazed with the audience, the enormous audience that the BBC had in Portugal.”

The journalist Carlos Alves. After the revolution of April 25th 1974, while the audiences were falling in Portugal because of a development of a free and independent media in that country, they were rising in Africa. This would be an important factor for the change of the target of the BBC Portuguese service. It began recruitment of African journalists and started giving more attention to the events and interests of the newly-independent former Portuguese colonies in Africa. Manuel Santana headed the newsroom here in London at that time.

“I came to the BBC after April 25th, it was in 1976 and in that time I witnessed the BBC in transition. After the 25th of April, naturally and with the process of decolonisation we had to adjust our programmes and redirect our editorial focus, as a new audience of was opening up. In Portugal, the democracy was getting established as well as the press freedom so we felt it necessary to make the changes. In the beginning of the 1980s we took a big step in recruiting African journalists and to have a service in the Portuguese language focused on African audiences.”

Manuel Santana, who headed this service for two decades until the beginning of the 1990s. Partnerships with local radio stations had been created, such as Bombolom Radio in Guinea-Bissau, Radio Nova in Cabo verde and Radio Mozambique where the BBC still broadcasts on seven frequencies across the country.

“(BBC on FM: In Mozambique in the cities of Maputo, Chaichai, Beira, Climand, Nambulo, Teta and Chimoi. In Guinea-Bissau through Bombolom Radio. In Cabo Verde through Radio Nova in Praia and São Vicente. In Dili in East Timor. BBC – bringing the world closer to you.)”

The BBC editorial policy of accuracy and impartiality would create a station with an alternative source of information in countries with single political party, with sometimes a very controlled and censured media as is still the case in Angola. Helena Sousa, a Communication Studies teacher at the University of Minho, did her doctoral thesis about the BBC in the PALOPs. She says that during the years of civil war in Angola and Mozambique, the BBC managed to offer to the listeners of those countries what the monopoly of the state couldn’t.

“At that time the media was controlled by government. The possibility of credible alternatives was non-existent. The BBC and its Portuguese Service was trying to get on-air. BBC values required listening to all parties in a conflict. The BBC also regulated itself by values of rigourous, quality journalism that was not frequent at that time in several countries – so the BBC was a voice who gave a voice to those whom had no other reliable information. It was of tremendous importance precisely at a time when democracy was limited or almost non-existent. Obviously the countries started their journey for democracy later, and alternatives to the BBC have since arrived.”

“(At work, at lunch with your friends, at dinner with your family, make your voice get heard. Start your day with the morning news and stay aware of the big events of the world. The news, the policy analysis, the economy, sport, culture. Everything you need to keep well informed. The morning news, in portuguese, for Africa.)”

The 1990s bought important political change to some Portuguese-speaking African countries, with the end of the civil war and multiparty political systems, as was the case for Mozambique. The emergence of an independent press created more competition in the media market. Internally, the BBC was making structural changes to meet this challenge using technological advances. The transition from the analogue system – recording tapes and cassettes – to the digital playout system in 2004 would prove to be the right decision despite some difficulties. Ana Bonaldo, a BBC audio engineer, was in charge of training journalists to use the new system.

“It was a project to bring all the BBC World Service into the digital era, to stop using analogue tapes, instead using digital systems that record directly to your computer, and then allow editing and play-listing.”

“(I mainly like to hear the news from BBC. The news from the BBC is always very rigorous. This is BBC.)”

The advancement of communication technology, the rapid growth of mobile phones in Africa and the spread of the internet, and the development of local radio stations prompted the BBC for Africa to offer multi-form programming. Teresa Lima, the head of the Portuguese service, lead that process.

“The competition in the media market at not only an international level but also in the target areas of the countries we broadcast to, lead us to give better attention to the quality of the information that our listeners needed. More analysis, more live radio, with different angles of approach and at the same time we increased our offer in multiple platforms, particularly since 2007. The Internet has been complemented with online information, accessible in mobile phones and also in social networks: Facebook and Twitter. We diversified our offer with programmes about the situation of women in Africa and the world, debates about international policy and – with sport – the first time the BBC broadcast commentary in Portuguese of the English Premier League. Interaction with the audience was another added value to our output, the direct participation of listeners in transmissions by sending SMS messages greatly strengthened the link with the audience and the concept that communication takes place in both directions. We had a growth in audiences of 151% according to the latest audience research published last year. In 2005, we had half a million listeners in Mozambique, because audience research has been done only in Mozambique, and in 2010 our audience in Mozambique is 1 and a half million listeners.”

Teresa Lima. The current global financial crisis has led the British government to initiate draconian cuts to programmes on the domestic BBC service. The World Service could not escape similar cuts. A quarter of the international workforce will lose their jobs later this year because of an austerity plan to save millions of pounds. That included the closure of 12 radio services – Portuguese for Africa, Russian, Mandarin, Spanish for south America, Vietnamese and English for the Caribbean among them.

Over the past 72 years we followed the changing times and technology while maintaining the rigour that characterises the BBC. Audiences were always at the centre of our attention. We hope to have made ​​the difference to you as we did for this listener:

“I practically learned with you, to be free.”

This is – was – BBC Portuguese for Africa.

The BBC’s Portuguese farewell after 72 years of history. However the messages from listeners keep coming, Gonçalo:

“There are many and there will be not enough time to read then all. Xuxa Maputo says ‘We are desperate with the end of the BBC and we are mourning in the CPLP, wishes of success for all the staff and thank you.’ Another message, Manuel Reis Nampula: ‘I already miss the BBC, the end of the transmissions is like losing a loved one.’ Leonel in Maputo says, ‘Is the end of the pure truth in the world with the closure of the BBC?’ In turn, Dinho also in Maputo: ‘We will miss this giant of information.’ Anilson Mendes says ‘I regret the closure of BBC in Portuguese and thanks to all the team for the work done.’ A message that arrived via e-mail from Elizabeth Christopher in the United States says: ‘I am a teacher for diplomats who go to Africa and Portugal and their students need to be aware of this channel – it serves as a discipline hearing for their exams’.”

Mozambique is certainly where one of the largest slices of our audience are. Magid Osman – the former Mozambican prime minister – knows that, and therefore thinks that the closure of the BBC’s Portuguese service leaves the communications landscape of the country poorer:

“I am surprised at the quality of protest by young Mozambicans, because that means the education that was delivered ​​in Mozambique by the BBC over the years was good; we have a civic duty to participate in political debates. Mozambicans will lose an opportunity to participate in the discussions that you usually organise, that means in terms of communication and information, Mozambique will certainly be poorer.”

Oscar Baia is a listener and contributor to the BBC in Sao Tome and Principe, he says he received the news of closure of the BBC in Portuguese with much sadness.

“It is with sadness that I received the news, because the BBC has always been friends to us in this space, a space for pluralism of uncensored ideas but I believe that the BBC will very soon create another space in which our feelings, our ideas can be expressed.”

Oscar Baia – a listener and contributor to the BBC in Sao Tome and Principe. Jorge Miranda Alfama is a Cape Verdean writer and an ardent listener of the BBC for 70 years.

“Unfortunately, the end of a walk. A journey that was important, marked generations, it brought serious information, because it was serious information to the Portuguese world, that ends. It’s sad.”

Jorge Miranda Alfama – a listener to the BBC in Cape Verde. A former BBC employee who for went to all 4 corners of the world with work, is the Portuguese diplomat Antonio Monteiro, who as a listener laments the end of BBC broadcasts to Africa.

“The news about the closure of BBC broadcasts in Portuguese is sad, sad for the Portuguese-speaking world, and sad, I think, for the BBC. There is a great tradition of listening to the BBC in the Portuguese-speaking countries, including Africa. I remember myself as a kid to hear my father saying that he was following the events of World War II through the BBC. I think the BBC has failed in view of the importance of other parts of the Portuguese world beyond Europe. I am sorry that this has happened and hope that one day the BBC, as it happened in the past, comes back and restores the broadcasts in Portuguese.”

Ambassador Antonio Monteiro. And we have some more messages.

“Many messages, this one arrived by e-mail from a Guinean studying in Russia. His name is Amadou Marabaldé and he says he is a “listener who liked to follow the news through BBC Radio Bombolon when he was in Guinea-Bissau and now through the BBC on the Internet. Unfortunately, it will not continue but this is not our fault. Other messages: Nanco Mambica Junior: “This is the saddest day of life. ” Matthew Timothy: “I feel a sharp pain at the fact that from today I will not be listening to the BBC anymore, we are in mourning.”

You’re listening to the BBC – the last time we will broadcast live from London. We continue travelling around the African world and collecting testimonies from those who closely followed the BBC. Our Correspondents across Portuguese-speaking African countries, some of them with more than two decades at the BBC, were instrumental in our coverage. In Cape Verde, José Vicente Lim was the first correspondent in Africa. He started 23 years ago to report the reality of the archipelago, where in the 1980s the informative overview of the situation was very different, as he himself tells us.

“In the 1980s, we had here in Cape Verde a closed media, I remember that one of the things that we could not report was that president Arxice Pereira was ill. I sent the report to the BBC and then it was a God help us because it was a state secret. I will always remember that the BBC as an entity helped me a lot from a professional standpoint. I can say that part of who I am or represent owes it to the BBC. So vast are the memories I have of this organisation, I have every reason to keep the BBC as the best moments of my life.”

José Vicente Lopes in the city of Praia. For over a decade our correspondent Artur Pinho has been in the capital Sao Tome.

“I could really understand with the BBC how important it is to always present information with accuracy, neutrality and impartiality. Information always with the reactions of both parties, a continuous search for balance. Another great experience I had, has to do with the use of new technologies. In that respect I surrender a deep homage to the BBC as it spared no effort and learned never to leave out their employees.”

Artur Pinho in Sao Tome. In Mozambique, our correspondent Elotério Finida traveled the country looking for stories of human nature to tell the BBC listeners. Today, he recalls one of these episodes.

“There are funny stories we did that led to many interesting comments and reactions – for example a story made ​​from the Zangázia that showed how, using their ingenuity on the one hand, but also to its child’s own genius, used the male condom, vulgar shirt Venus to make the balls of his championships for football. The truth is that throughout this time of work, presence in Mozambique, the BBC stood by the listeners in both good times and bad times.”

Salvador Gomez – BBC correspondent in Guinea-Bissau – recalls the evolution of his work.

“There are many differences. I started working for the BBC sending telex, then we started using voice and by then we moved to the Internet. There are different phases that have made me a professional with some experience. I was very much linked to the experience of print, now I can say I have a certain mastery of vocal media.”

Salvador Gomez, the BBC correspondent for 21 years. There were also many knowledgeable voices and personal opinions that went through the microphones of the BBC to comment and analyse the news. Miguel Monjardino, professor of the Catholic University made ​​several reviews for the BBC on politics and internal security and is unhappy to prepare this farewell.

“I received the news with sadness because obviously it’s a great channel with a great reputation internationally of broadcasting news in Portuguese and it’s obviously politically important today and also from a journalistic point of view is a channel with enormous credibility. So combining the two things, I received the news with regret. It was really great to work with journalists from the Portuguese section of the BBC and so I’m going to miss it.”

Words of the analyst Michael Monjardino. Monica Ferro, a technician from the Centre for African Studies, was one of the researchers more participative in discussions of the BBC in these last years. It is understandable therefore that the notice of closure had saddened the researcher. She recalls the coverage of events in Nigeria that she followed closely.

“I confess that I lived very near the whole situation in Nigeria. The coverage they did of the various crises of succession in power, I know that was a great wealth, the pieces were made with a great depth in terms of historical context, and in terms of contribution to the field of information and I know that they have known how to explain a little of what was happening and they were covering all the moments of this great African country.”

The testimony of the investigator Monica Ferro. Bull Conte, 31, is an ardent listener of the BBC and lives in Bissau where he works as a journalist and is an official of the ministry of transport and communication in Guinea-Bissau. He explains to us why he always listened to BBC broadcasts and how he faces the news of the closure of the news in Portuguese:

“I chose the BBC for being my favorite organs in the world. My final message is that listeners of the BBC are very sorry to have heard the British government’s decision to quit transmissions in Portuguese. It saddens us very much because in fact for us it’s a hasty decision and can even be considered as a wrong decision. It is a way to marginalise the Portuguese language.”

Buli Conté was one of our listeners in Guinea Bissau. More listeners have written to us via SMS.

“Many listeners, like Teodosio from Mampula: ‘It is an irreparable loss to lose the BBC – it’s like being voiceless.’ Julio from Maputo: ‘I am very sad because the BBC is my favorite news station.’ Rui Alibaldé congratulates us for the services rendered over the years: ‘I find it hard to believe I’m listening to London for the last time.’ It is very sad for the Portuguese-speaking African, Aiçato Lamarana said in Bissau. ‘72 years is more than a life. Mozambique will be mourning, it is a great pity’ says Abdul. And also in Cape Verde, this arrived by email, Carlos Fernandes is very sad to listen to the BBC for the last time he says that ‘for years, BBC was his faithful company’.”

Dear listener, this is the last time the BBC broadcasts in Portuguese for Africa. On behalf of the entire BBC team our thanks, for everything.

Take care.