Reporters Without Borders has condemned the decision of the Angolan government on 8 July 2008 to suspend independent Radio Despertar’s broadcasts for 180 days on the grounds that their current range is much more the 50 km stipulated in its licence. The suspension comes just one month before an election campaign is due to begin on 5 August.
“Restricting media pluralism in the run-up to legislative elections will obstruct the necessary democratic debate,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Furthermore, the measure is illegal as it has been taken under decree-law 69/97, which was voided by a new press law in 2006.”
The suspension was decided by the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Angolan Media and was communicated to Radio Despertar director Alexandre Solombe by the Angolan Institute for Communications (INACOM).
Solombe said his station is the victim of “an electoral manoeuvre by the government in the run-up to legislative elections.”
Created under the peace accords between the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Radio Despertar began broadcasting in 2006.
The station has been very successful in the capital, Luanda, especially in the suburbs, where many listeners participate in its phone-in programmes. Its current affairs programmes have been particularly popular in the approach to the elections.
Radio Despertar formerly operated as Radio VORGAN, a propagandist mouthpiece for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which radically opposed Angola’s ruling communist party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the country’s lengthy civil war, which lasted from 1974 to 2002.
In 1991, a tentative ceasefire agreement and peace accord was signed by UNITA and MPLA, which was supposed to end the war in Angola. As part of that agreement, Radio VORGAN was to transform its broadcasting mandate or discontinue its broadcast. The 1991 peace accord failed and war resumed, followed by other failed accords and attempts at peace.
It wasn’t until April 1, 1998 that Radio VORGAN left the airwaves. As part of the peace process, it was agreed that Radio VORGAN would be transformed into a bipartisan radio station called Radio Awakening, or Radio Despertar in Portuguese. Radio Despertar waited for government approval to begin broadcasting for several years, until finally launching its signal in 2006.
(Sources: Reporters Without Borders/Community Media for Development)
