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## PORTUGUESE AFRICA THROUGH DANISH EYES AND EARS

Danmarks Radio's (DR) Portrayal of the Portuguese Colonial State, 1961-1974.

By: Alex Alexandre History

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ABSTRACT: This  article  examines  Danmarks  Radio's  portrayal  of  the  Portuguese  colonial  state, specifically during the Portuguese colonial war. From the collected archive material, it has been possible to identify three main phases of the reporting. The first phase, from 1961, was uncritical of the conflicts that were erupting the in Portuguese African colonies. From the mid-1960's a second phase started to emerge, where analysis and criticism in the reports appeared. By 1970, the coverage of the different wars evolved into a third phase, which was committed anti-colonial.

KEYWORDS: colonial war, Danmarks Radio, Portugal, radio, television

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

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## Introduction

Compared to the length and extent of other Cold War conflicts and wars, the Portuguese colonial war  has  often  been  overlooked  until  recent  decades.  This  article's  purpose  is  to  add  another perspective, a Danish perspective, to this 13-year long conflict. Danmarks Radio (DR) was from the start involved in reporting and portraying the war to its Danish and European viewers and listeners. This  article  examines  how  DR  portrayed,  and  how  this  portrayal  changed,  throughout  the Portuguese colonial state and its war in its African colonies from 1961 to 1974.

## Media and colonialism

The portrayal of colonialism in the 20th century by the media was spearheaded by the BBC, which was the biggest and most technologically advanced in this industry. In the interwar period colonial newsreels and films showed the 'natives' as recipients of 'colonial peace and European technology and  economic  initiative.'  (Austin  2011:  225-26).  This  was  part  of  a  bigger  media  and  popular culture propaganda in the European colonial empires' metropoles (Jansen and Osterhammel 2019: 55;  Castelo  2017:  223).  In  the  post-war  period  up  to  the  1960's,  the  development  and modernisation  projects  in  Africa  were  portrayed  as  joint  team  effort  between  the  metropole, dominions, and colonies (Austin 2011: 227).

Meanwhile in Denmark, the post-war period up to the 1960's was a time when, radio and television had a growing impact in the mental construction of Denmark as a nation-state, but also in the introduction to the world outside of its borders, informing about and showing images from foreign countries.  By  1960  half  of  all  Danish  households  had  a  television,  which  meant  that  television broadcast in this period increased from 6 hours per week to 40 hours. This meant that not only the national reality, but also the international reality was able to be visualised to an unprecedented level (Bondebjerg 2006: 130-33). Radio and television were used to create a shared and unified Danish perception of the outside world.

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DR's news programme TV-Avisen did not exist before October 1965. In its stead there were various newsreels  programmes  during  the  week,  the  longest  running  being Aktuelt (1951-1964).  These programmes included short stories on both domestic and foreign topics. They were not presented and tied together by a presenter but consisted of filmed segments with voice-over. The stories about foreign topics were mainly about political and social conditions but were characterised by the lack of any analysis or discussion (Hjarvard 2006: 105-8). A constant challenge for news production was the technology of film. The speed with which images could be obtained for a current story was quite slow.  DR  relied  heavily  on  international  news  agencies  and  the  Eurovision  News  Exchange cooperation  between  the  national  public  service  television  stations  in  Europe.  After  1965,  DR's foreign  news  editorial  team  could  on  a  daily  basis  familiarise  themselves  with  image  options  for international  various  events.  The  more  independent  and  extensive  reporting  on  foreign  events, however, took place in the foreign affairs magazine Horisont , which still exists to this day. Through this programme, the viewers received Danish edited reports from foreign, mainly Anglo-American, news agencies, as well as reports and analyses by their own journalists and correspondents (Hjarvard 2006:  112-13).  In  general,  this  period  between  1960  and  1975  was  characterised  by  a  very traditional enlightenment philosophy of documentary and facts, with very little room for a critical journalistic analysis (Bondebjerg 2006: 181-82).

## Primary Sources

All primary sources used in this essay are radio and television programmes produced and broadcasted by DR between 1961 and 1974. I have seen and listened to ca. 140 radio and television programmes of all types and lengths, most being short agency images and other being full 40-minute programmes of various types, Horisont being the most common. Most of the short agency images were used for the television news and unfortunately do not have sound, as they were used as background images while the news anchor spoke, therefore their  use  is  restricted.  A  big  part  of  the  radio  archive  is currently being digitised as well and parts of the television archive has not been digitised, therefore the materials gathered do not offer a full image of DR's coverage of the Portuguese 20th century colonial history in Africa. What it does, is give an idea of how this coverage changed along the years.

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In short, the material used is based on a selection of complete digitised programmes of various types and lengths.

## The First and the Last: Portugal in Africa (1945-1961)

## Domestic and International Context

Portugal had since 1933 been an authoritarian dictatorship called Estado Novo (New State), which was led by prime minister António de Oliveira Salazar. Nationalism, corporatism, and traditional values  were  the  core  of  this  regime.  The  colonial  empire  was  an  integral  part  of  the  regime's nationalism  -  the  Portuguese  state  and  empire  were  for  all  purposes  synonymous,  except constitutionally. Any questioning of Portugal's colonial empire was quickly and severely contested both domestically  and  internationally,  causing  Portugal  to  become  more  internationally  isolated along the years after the Second World War (Garcia et al. 2017: 12-14).

Abroad, the end of the Second World War sparked a wave of worldwide decolonisation process in the following three decades. At that time, most colonial experts thought that European rule in Africa would last. This would prove to be very miscalculated. Most of the European colonies in Africa became new independent nation-states between 1957 and 1965, if they weren't already independent (Jansen and Osterhammel 2019: 4, 63, 71).

Influencing this process was the overarching Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Their struggle for influence and power did not exempt the European colonies. Although the Soviet Union did not have policy of world revolution, most communist or anticolonial movements around the world did receive to a greater or lesser extent support from the Soviet Union and other communist countries (Jansen and Osterhammel 2019: 139-44). To counter this, the United States used  European  colonialism  to  contain  the  spread  of  communism.  In  this  way  colonial  conflicts became proxy conflicts between American and Soviet backed movements (Jansen and Osterhammel 2019: 148-50).

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## The Isolation in the United Nations

International  opinion  became  a  big  factor  in  the  post  Second  World  War  world.  It  had  a  great impact on the colonial powers during this period. In 1951 the Portuguese government acted on the international anticolonial criticism and anticipated a possible entry into the UN, after being vetoed by the Soviet Union in 1946. The constitutional change of 1951 integrated the Colonial Act of 1930, which was the colonial constitution, into the Portuguese constitution. Thereby there were no longer two different constitutions, one for the metropole and another for the empire, and therefore the Portuguese colonial empire ceased to exist, at least constitutionally. The former colonies became overseas provinces (Monteiro 2023: 53-54).

From 1956 to 1960 the international support for Portugal dwindled. The decolonisation in Africa and Asia led to many former European colonies becoming members of the UN, thereby forming a majority against colonial states. The Brazilian and American support would disappear in late 1960 after presidential elections in each country respectively elected Jânio Quadros and John F. Kennedy, which further isolated Portugal in the UN (Cervelló 2020c: 54-55).

Another criticism the Portuguese government received was about the Portuguese forced labour laws called the indigenato , Native Labour Code and Colonial Act of 1930. These laws essentially made a distinction  between  a  normal  Portuguese  citizen  and  'native'.  More  than  95%  of  the  African colonies'  population  were  labelled  as  'natives'  and  subordinate  to  these  laws.  All  had  to  have  a 'native'  identity  card,  where  contracts,  labour  obligations  and  movements  were  written  down. Portuguese officials could then sanction the individual if any of these were violated and send them to a penal work or prison. These laws were first abolished in 1962 (Monteiro 2023: 1-5).

On the 14th December 1960 an important step was made. The General Assembly of the United Nations  passed  Resolution  1514  'Declaration  on  the  Granting  of  Independence  to  Colonial Countries and Peoples'. 89 countries voted in favour of the resolution, including Denmark, while Portugal abstained along with eight other countries (United Nations General Assembly 1960a). The next day, the resolution of 'Transmission of information under Article 73e of the Charter' was passed, which was a direct resolution by the UN towards Portugal, for the Portuguese government

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give all  of  its  colonial  territories  in  Africa  and  Asia  self-determination.  (United  Nations  General Assembly  1960b).  This  meant  granting  independence,  which  was  of  course  impossible  for  the Portuguese government as it saw its colonial possessions as core Portuguese provinces, which were overseas provinces. (Cervelló 2020b: 58-60).

## Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974)

Before going on, a clarification is needed as to the Portuguese Colonial War. The name itself is a Eurocentric umbrella term for three different colonial/independence wars in the Portuguese African colonies:  Angola,  Guinea-Bissau,  and  Mozambique.  Each  war  had  its  own  historical  context, nuances  and  were  fought  with  different  methods.  For  the  sake  of  simplicity,  the  term  of  the Portuguese Colonial War will be used about the three wars, as this was the perspective of DR as well. With the quick and simplified resumés of the wars, many nuances will be omitted. A common thread running through all three wars was the horrific violence and destruction, the high number of civilian casualties, the huge number of refugees, and the deep scars it left in all societies. The fighting and struggle through the years were constant, even though they might not be mentioned.

On the 15th March, the Union of the Peoples of Angola (UPA) launched a large bloody attack throughout the northern provinces of Angola. Plantations, farms, factories, government buildings, houses and infrastructure were destroyed (Afonso and Gomes 2020: 82-85). Only on the 13th April did Salazar act, after a failed coup by the Minister of Defence general Botelho Moniz to overthrow Salazar  and  change  the  Portuguese  colonial  policy.  On  the  1st  May  a  large  Portuguese  military contingent  arrived  in  Luanda  and  from  there  launched  a  military  campaign  in  the  northern provinces which destroyed many villages and killed many civilians, and reports said that napalm was used in these bombings. By august 1961, the Portuguese military had regained control over the region (Afonso and Gomes 2020: 82-95; James 2018: 266; Alves 2017: 14). The UPA and People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) kept on fighting a guerilla war, but no large attacks were made. Eventually the two groups began fighting each other. By 1964 the UPA, now known as the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), suffered an internal divide which went to form the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in 1966 in eastern Angola. By

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this time the MPLA was the biggest of the three independence movements and was trying to gain territory from central Angola into the FNLA's northern Angola and UNITA's eastern Angola. The Portuguese military was in control of the situation of Angola until 1974 (Afonso and Gomes 2020: 104-5).

The war in Guinea-Bissau, the bloodiest and most intense of the three theatres of war, started in January 1963, when the communist African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) militants attacked a Portuguese military garrison in Tite with Soviet supplied weapons. This attack escalated quickly to military conflict between the Portuguese military and the PAIGC. The PAIGC had the support of the neighbouring Guinea and Senegal, where they had various bases, therefore the war was conducted mostly on the southwestern part of Guinea-Bissau. By 1965, new fronts  were  drawn  up  in  the  eastern  Guinean  border  and  the  northern  from  Senegal  and  the international support for the PAIGC grew to that point that Cuba sent military doctors, instructors, and technicians. In contrast to the war in Angola, the Portuguese fought a defensive war in GuineaBissau,  focusing  on  maintaining  footholds  in  the  cities  and  other  strategic  places.  This  gave  the PAIGC quite a lot of freedom of movement, which they used to its fullest to recruit and establish a governmental administration their territory  (Afonso  and  Gomes  2020:  20,  133-34;  Mendy  and Lobban 2013: 404; Gleijeses 1997: 49). By 1973 the Soviet Union started supplying surface-to-air missiles,  which  challenged  the  until  then  unchallenged  Portuguese  air  superiority.  This  factor changed  the  war  completely,  forcing  the  Portuguese  military  to  rethink  operations  and  medical evacuations. On the 24th September 1973, the PAIGC declared independence from Portugal. The Portuguese remained on the defensive until 1974 (Afonso and Gomes 2020: 135-37, 540-41).

In  Mozambique, the war started on the 25th September 1964, when the communist Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO) launched an attack in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. From the experiences in Angola and Guinea-Bissau, the Portuguese military positioned forces in strategic  locations  throughout  Mozambique.  By  December  FRELIMO  had,  like  the  PAIGC  in Guinea-Bissau, acquired Soviet-made weapons. With this newly gained support, they spread their area of operations throughout the northern provinces and in the western province of Tete (Cervelló 2020a:  146-48;  Afonso  and  Gomes  2020:  153-55).  Along  the  years,  FRELIMO's  equipment

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became stronger and more advanced. In Tete, the construction of the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi River started in 1969. The dam was primarily being built to export of hydroelectric energy to  South  Africa  and  was  seen  by  the  FRELIMO  as  a  criminal  enterprise.  By  1970,  FRELIMO's highest priority became the impediment of the construction of the dam and advance southwards, while the Portuguese objective was stopping this advance and not letting the FRELIMO cross the Zambezi River. By January 1974, FRELIMO was able to cross the Zambezi and approach on the city of Beira (Afonso and Gomes 2020: 155-60; Darch 2019: 73-74).

The isolated Portuguese government was postponing the inevitable. The wars were unwinnable wars, the geopolitical factors of the Cold War, the UN, public opinion, and the international media, were all  factors,  which  Portugal  in  the  end  could  not  contest.  After  13  years  of  war,  a  military  coup toppled the regime on the 25th of April 1974. The revolution brought a new democratic direction. One of the coup's main objectives was the end of the colonial war and the decolonization of the Portuguese colonies. By November 1975 the Portuguese Empire was no more (Garcia et al. 2017: 15-17).

## Portraying Portuguese Africa (1961-1964)

## A Conflict in Portuguese Angola

The first report on DR about the UPA attack in northern Angola came on the 14th February 1961. A newsreel from an American news agency showing a funeral of European victims ('Begravelse af de 4 døde fra opstanden' 1961). This was followed by a radio news programme which mentioned the  Liberian  proposal  that  the  United  Nations  Security  Council  (UNSC)  should  consider  the situation in the Portuguese colony of Angola under article 34 of the Charter. Liberia's representative stated that basic human rights were being violated in Angola and the UNSC had to take action to achieve freedom for the people of Angola (Riisager 1961: 17:34-18:56).

From March to November 1961 there were around 20 short relevant materials about the events in Angola, all of them only showing images of Portuguese refugees, evacuations, casualties, interviews with politicians and army drills and patrols in northern Angola. Among all these dramatic images

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and reports was an agricultural magazine informing about Danish cattle which would be sent to a newly built Danish farm in Angola called Cela, at no point was the unfolding events in Angola mentioned in the magazine (Jørgensen 1961: 21:18-27:18).

Three radio broadcasts stand out during this period. The first being the forementioned Liberian proposal at the UN. The second is a transmission from 8th May, where the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Nogueira's warns about the Soviet imperialism's infiltration in Asia, Africa, and  South  America.  According  to  Nogueira,  such  Soviet  infiltration  undermined  NATO  by undermining the position of NATO members. There was an indirectly hint at the Soviet supported movements in Angola. Before the transmission of the speech, journalist Sven Ludvigsen made a resumé of the speech in Danish but did not analyse or comment it (Ludvigsen 1961). The third transmission was Danish Foreign Minister Jens Otto Krag's speech at the UN transmitted on the 28th September of the same year. After discussing the situation between South Africa and South West  Africa,  Krag  showed  great  concern  about  the  situation  in  Angola  and  appealed,  without mentioning any names, towards the upholding of the UN charters. This was the first time, from the materials gathered, that DR transmitted a Danish government official's position on the Angolan conflict (Rastén 1961: 03:56-04:24). At this time the conflict was mostly under control and was only located in Angola, so it is safe to say, that the conflict in Angola was not a high priority after June 1961.

## Danmarks Radio in Angola

The first large programme made by DR was Angola 61 . It was a black and white television reportage divided into four approx. 25 minutes programmes. They visited different places in Angola and the Republic of Congo. There is unfortunately no information about when they were in Angola, but it can be estimated that they were in the autumn of 1961. Angola 61 covers a broad variety of topics. It is difficult to give them all a fair share of attention, but some are repeated more than others. These are the Portuguese narrative of racial harmony in the colonies, the Portuguese modernisation and development plans and the indigenous labour force.

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Throughout  the  four  programmes  the  DR  team,  and  specifically  the  journalist  Claus  Toksvig reported about a racial harmony in Portuguese Angola. According to Toksvig and all the people he interviewed there was no racial divide. Toksvig stated that it:

'… was an irrefutable fact, that the Portuguese did not have the same perception of the relationship between black and white, it was only a man's skills and knowledge that determined how high he could reach in society.' (Carlsen, Toksvig, and Walter 1961: 06:18-08:22).

While ending the whole series, Toksvig emphasized that the Portuguese were not race conscious (Toksvig, Carlsen, and Walter 1961b: 23:55-25:17). The Danes interviewed by Toksvig did have clear racist opinions, some more than others, which when spoken were not questioned or confronted by Toksvig in any way.

Angola 61 , a post-war programme, kept true to the interwar period's colonial television. It showed how Danish individuals technologically and economically help Portugal in its modernisation effort in  Angola,  making  the  Danes  in  Angola  part  of  the  settler  colonialism  taking  place  in  Angola. Through the four programmes the expedition spoke with various Danes helping in each their own way the modernisation and development of Angola. In the third programme in the series the DR team  travelled  to  the  new  settlement  of  Cela,  which  had  a  handful  of  Danes  helping  with  the development of a dairy industry. In the introduction to the segment, Toksvig described a Portuguese settler colonialist plan to develop and modernise that area:

'In a valley 400 kilometres from Luanda, an area of about 150,000 hectares of good land has been drained and drained, and the government has built 12-13 small villages of this type. These are small farms and in them they have placed farmers from Portugal, the Azores and elsewhere, all white, to cultivate the land and produce agricultural products.' (Toksvig, Carlsen, and Walter 1961a: 07:4014:40)

The labour laws were never mentioned in the four programmes. The closest it got to, was in the first programme when a Danish director of a cement factory near Luanda was asked if there were opportunities for the skilful local workers, to which Jensen answered: 'Yes, there is. A few years ago, there wasn't so much. Today, the door has opened for blacks to enter the labour force.' The forced

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labour laws were not mentioned and Toksvig did not enquire into this, but the fact that Jensen admits that the labour force 'door' was restricted for the local population until recently, was a break in the Portuguese racial harmony narrative. (Carlsen, Toksvig, and Walter 1961: 15:38-20:28).

In the four programs, the DR team did not at any point interview a non-white person in Angola (excluding  the  merchant  of  mixed  ethnicity  who  identified  himself  as  white  and  was  very  proPortugal). The team did not mention this lack of the indigenous Angolan perspective, or that they might have been restricted by the Portuguese government or a third-party. Only when the DR team crossed the border into Congo in the fourth programme did they have a interview with Angolan refugees which was useless - the interview was conducted by a French-speaking Swiss Red Cross employee, who asked the questions to a politically biased Congolese soldier who then translated them to the refugees. A lot of information was lost in translation, if not just changed. The Red Cross employee did not know how to conduct an interview or was just uninterested.

Toksvig  and  the  rest  of  the  team  reported  on  the  war,  but  mostly  at  the  end  of  segments  or programmes as way to balance out the positive opinions about the racial harmony and modernisation plans  (Carlsen,  Toksvig,  and  Walter  1961:  20:28-23:22).  Toksvig  knew  there  were  problems  in Angola, but he stayed uncritical of the situation he was surrounded by. This can be attributed to the lack of analysis the programmes of this period had, or that Toksvig and the rest of the DR team did not see any sort racism, due to being shown what the Portuguese authorities wanted to show them, and thereby there was nothing to report.

By  the  start  of  January  1963,  a  news  report,  although  a  very  short  one,  where  Angolan  FNLA volunteers were shown at a training camp in the Republic of Congo. Over the images, a journalist talked  about  the  European  and  African  perspective  on  decolonisation  -  'From  a  European perspective, it may appear that most former African colonial countries have gained independence. From an African perspective, a large part of the continent, over a quarter, is still ruled by a European minority.' ('Partisaner fra Angola træner i lejr i Congo' 1963: 19:12-20:11). This might be the first time,  apart  from  Angola  61,  where  a  DR  journalist  reflects  over  the  situation  from  different perspectives.

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As stated in the previous section, the reports of this period were informative and factual in nature, but there was no further analysis or critical journalism involved. The viewer was presented with mainly news agency images presented by a Danish journalist, and it was there DR's work ended. From there the viewers could take it for what it was or think further about the conflict by themselves and this was the intention in the journalism of that time. Angola 61 's portrayal of the colonial state simply  confirmed  the  Portuguese  narrative,  with  some  comments  about  the  uncertain  future  of colonialism, seemingly to balance the opinions.

## The Colonial War (1965-1969)

## Criticism on Horisont

The Horisont programme broadcast on 12th January 1965 marked a shift in the DR coverage of the conflict. The last third of the 27-minute programme was used to critically discuss the Portuguese state and its colonial war in Africa. This was the first time, from the materials gathered, that a DR journalist was this critical of the Portuguese state. The segment about Portugal was divided into two parts.  First  was  a  reportage  with  agency  images  and  a  voice-over.  Images  of  Portuguese  military ceremonies and anti-guerilla exercises ended with the journalist concluding: 'This means that the warplanes, naval vessels, and machine guns that NATO countries have supplied to Portugal, in the name of democracy, are now being used to suppress African freedom movements.' When talking about the Portuguese dictatorship another criticism of the colonial state:

'… Salazar regularly sends tens of thousands of unschooled farmers down to Lisbon. Here, huge crowds gather to honour Salazar and applaud a foreign and colonial policy whose inner logic few understand. Many Portuguese continue to support Salazar. Some do it out of sincere conviction, some do it because they make their living in the administration and some because they don't know any better.' (Danstrup et al. 1965b: 18:46-22:24).

The second part was an interview with six politicians from six different parties. This was due to criticism from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nogueira about the Danish relation to Greenland. This was the first time Danish parliament members discussed the Portuguese colonial war. They

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were mostly in agreement that the relation that Denmark had with Greenland was not of a colonial nature, because of the democratic relation Denmark and Greenland had and that the UN and other international organisations had approved of Greenland being part of Denmark. Compared to this relation, they were all also in agreement that the relation that Portugal had with its colonies was of a colonial nature. Most did not want to comment on the Portuguese relation with its colonies, as they did not know enough about the subject (Danstrup et al. 1965a: 22:24-26:45).

A full 27-minute Horisont programme was later made in November 1967 about the Portuguese state, but mainly focusing on the metropolitan situation. A quick summary of the Portuguese colonial empire  was  made.  Angola  was  presented:  'From  Angola  there  is  a  large  export  of  iron  ore  and diamonds and one thing the Portuguese can proudly emphasise - there is no racial discrimination.' (Danstrup et al.  1967:  00:00-03:33).  This  was  a  very  uncritical  and  naïve  portrayal  of  the  warridden colonies. To balance this view, the next segment focused briefly on the colonial war. The images shown only show the Portuguese perspective - wounded and refugees are shipped to the metropole, military patrols, and areal images of the destruction.

All  the  while  not  being  consistent  of  how  to  label  the  independence  movements,  interchanging between revolutionary forces and rebellions: 'The refugees from the areas affected by the African revolution. In Angola the rebellion started in 1961, in Portuguese Guinea in 63 and Mozambique in 64. So far, the fighting has left thousands dead and wounded.' (Danstrup et al. 1967: 03:3304:59). Only images showing the Portuguese perspective are shown, giving a sense of sympathising with the Portuguese soldiers and refugees.

## Mondlane's Interview in Copenhagen

In  late  September  or  early  October  1967,  Eduardo  Mondlane  was  interviewed  while  he  was  in Copenhagen. Mondlane was the president of the FRELIMO and would be assassinated in February 1969 by the Portuguese secret service (PIDE) in Dar es Salaam (Darch 2019, 269-71). In the threeminute interview aired  by  DR,  Mondlane  was  able  to  express  his  view  on  the  unfairness  of  the European  settler  minority's  rule  and  exploitation  of  the  seven  million  African  inhabitants  in Mozambique. When talking about his and his family's experiences of colonial rule, Mondlane's

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description  of  the  in  the  harsh  labour  conditions  for  the  African  population  in  the  Portuguese colonies:

'… all my brothers were away working for Europeans, either in South Africa in gold mines, or in the cities, in the ports of Mozambique. And they never quite were able to count come back unless they were sick to come and die.'

Dramatized  or  not,  and  not  directly  mentioning  the  Portuguese  forced  labour  policies,  this description was the first time, from the gathered material, that the Danish viewer was confronted with  the  harsh  reality  of  labour  under  Portuguese  colonial  rule  ('Glimt  fra  Mozambique  hvor afrikanske frihedskæmpere har sat sig fast i en femtedel af landet' 1967: 01:19-04:03).

## Portugal's NATO Membership

The Horisont programme's first report was about a subject that would be discussed throughout the rest  of  the  1960's  and  up  through  the  1970's  -  NATO.  Portugal's  usage  of  NATO  supplied armament  being  used  against  the  various  African  independence  movements  and  supressing  the democratic  opposition  in  the  metropole,  were  causing  debates  in  the  member  state  countries, including in Denmark. In a Horisont programme aired in April 1969 the DR journalist is direct in his  criticism  of  the  Portuguese  government.  The  journalist  accused  Portugal  of  going  against NATO's  purpose  of  defending  democracy,  and  even  stated  that  Portugal  never  had  been  a democracy,  but  '…  is  fighting  democratic  development  both  at  home  and  in  its  colonies.' Furthering this criticism, the journalist highlighted that: 'The vast majority of Portugal's military capability is not used within the NATO framework but is used to fight the resistance movements in the  African  possessions.'  Ending  the  report,  the  journalist  mentioned  Eduardo  Mondlane's assassination two months prior, who had repeatedly emphasised that the other NATO countries, because they were Portugal's allies, were helping to fight the African freedom movements (Danstrup et  al.  1969:  16:38-18:04).  In  this Horisont report,  the  journalist  portrayed  Portugal  as  an undemocratic colonial state, which was suppressing democratic movements in its metropole and waging a war with NATO supplied weapons against resistance movements in its colonies, which stained  the  NATO  alliance  as  a  pro-colonial  organisation.  Quite  a  portrayal  in  a  report  with  a duration of under two minutes.

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In the radio, this debate continued. DR transmitted the Social Democrats' congress in June 1969. Even though it was not DR directly criticising the Portuguese state, it was still transmitted and given quite a lot of transmission time. The former prime minister Jens Otto Krag, who would be elected again in 1971, mentioned the Greek and Portuguese dictatorships as mismatches in the NATO alliance. Again, the Portuguese colonial war was brought up as a contrast to NATO's democratic values.  Krag  ended  stating  that  Denmark  had  to  demand  a  halt  to  all  arms  aid  to  the  current governments  of  Greece  and  Portugal  (Koplev  and  Mathisen  1969a).  Two  days  later,  Mogens Lykketoft  representing  the  Social  Democrats'  youth  wing,  proposed  that  'the  fascist  regimes  in Greece  and  Portugal  are  excluded  from  co-operation  as  long  as  the  current  governments  are  in power.' (Koplev and Mathisen 1969b). This was the first time, from the gathered material, that Portugal had been called a fascist regime in DR's transmissions.

From 1965, a new approach to the Portuguese state started to emerge. DR journalists became more active in the analysis of the Portuguese government in the metropole and in the colonies. Danish political debates related to NATO lead the way to Portuguese colonial affairs being brought up in the Danish parliament and political congresses and consequently ending being broadcast by DR in way or another.

## The Turning Point (1970-1974)

On the 18th July 1973, Horisont brought  yet  again  a  programme  about  Portugal,  but  this  time focusing  solely  on  the  Portuguese  colonial  war.  It  started  with  informing  about  the  Wiriyamu Massacre committed by Portuguese forces near the Cahora Bassa dam's construction site. The rest of the programme was about the independence movements' perspective in the colonial war. In this programme  three  different  films  were  shown,  each  about  different  colonies'  independence movements. In the presentation of the first, an American film about FRELIMO, Dalhoff-Nielsen, did  not  hide  the  fact  of  being  biased  and  admitting  that  it  was  in  fact  indictment  of  Portugal (Danstrup et al. 1973: 05:57-06:09). The film about PAIGC shows an interview with the leader Amilcar Cabral and follow a PAIGC groups' preparation and execution of an attack on a Portuguese outpost.  When  the  PAIGC  soldiers  were  getting  in  position  for  the  attack,  Dalhoff-Nielsen

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02

## December 2024

reminded the viewer that the Nordic countries support the schools and hospitals of the partisan movements, and this support was politically controversial in Denmark, due to both countries being NATO members (Danstrup et al. 1973, 28:58-29:09). In the last part about Angola, the MPLA's leader, Agostinho Neto was interviewed, and UNITA was shown on Danish television for the first time, with an interview with its leader Jonas Savimbi. This programme clearly showed how aligned DR was with the independence movements in the Portuguese African colonies.

In this period DR kept its anti-colonial stance by broadcasting foreign pro-independence movement reportages on its programmes. This was especially the case in the Horisont programmes. From the 1973, DR's covering of the colonial war expanded. Not only more programmes were being made about the unfolding events, but television teams were also being sent to Portugal and Guinea-Bissau, which led to the Horisont programme of the 9th of January 1974, the most nuanced programme since the mid-1960's. A television team with Horisont journalist Peter Dalhoff-Nielsen, photographer Ole Lytken, sound technician Ove G. Sørensen and translator Peter Harpsøe. The team, travelled to Guinea-Bissau to report from first-hand experience. Starting with an introduction of the Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau and the capital city of Bissau, while a military marching band of 46 indigenous soldiers leads the change of the guard of the governor's palace in the background. By this time the PAIGC had already declared independence (Dalhoff-Nielsen, Lytken, and Sørensen 1974). Dalhoff-Nielsen brings up the much-debated topic of the racial divide in the Portuguese colonial  society.  He  affirms  that  officially  both  African  and  Europeans  have  the  same  rights,  he maintains the DR status quo that the team while in Guinea-Bissau did not see a single sign of racial discrimination, and if there was one it would be a social divide rather than a racial one (DalhoffNielsen, Lytken, and Sørensen 1974: 09:08-10:28). When visiting the village of Empada, the DR team interviewed three indigenous militiamen, who told the DR team, that they had joined the Portuguese militia, because the PAIGC had indiscriminately killed villagers of Empada (DalhoffNielsen, Lytken, and Sørensen 1974: 26:23-30:28). After all the pro-PAIGC programmes, this was the first-time atrocities committed by the PAIGC were told on a DR programme.

## Conclusion

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

DR's portrayal of the Portuguese colonial state had three phases. The first phase, starting from the essay's  start  date  -  1961,  DR  had  an  uncritical  stance  towards  the  looming conflicts that would erupt in the Portuguese African colonies. Angola 61 was an ambitious programme but ended with very mixed results and leaving a narrative which leaned quite heavily on the Portuguese regime's narrative and with a lack of nuance. DR was just not interested in the Angolan conflict until 1963, when a new war started in Guinea-Bissau. Meanwhile, the world situation was evolving as well. The decolonisation of Africa was by the mid-1960's almost complete. With the Portuguese use of NATO supplied weapons in its wars, the colonial war began to be debated in Danish politics in relation to NATO, and subsequently  became  a  more  covered  topic  on  the  radio  and  television.  With  that development, a new second phase started to emerge. DR's journalists became more analytic and critical  about  the  colonial  war,  colonialism,  and  the  Portuguese  state.  By  around  1970,  DR's coverage  evolved  to  a  third  phase  where  it  was  fully  committed  anti-colonial  broadcaster.  DR supported the various African independence movements by focusing on giving the independence movements' perspectives more airtime, than the Portuguese perspective, interviewing movement leaders, travelling to the different colonies, and using foreign materials to further its point of view. For this purpose, the program Horisont was, since 1965, a key instrument in this portrayal of the Portuguese colonial state. One thing that did not change throughout the whole period, was the narrative of racial harmony in the Portuguese colonial state. Various DR journalist's, throughout the period, held the opinion that the divide was not racial, but social.

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## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

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