The Emissora Nacional Radio as a support for a new Portuguese identity between 1933 and 1945

The 16 years of the first Republic in Portugal was an era of political instability. In 1926 the political scenario of the country completely changed. Due to the 28th May Revolution, a military government of nationalist nature and anti-parliamentary was established. So it started a National Dictatorship, later known as the New State (Estado Novo). This dictatorship only came to an end on the 25th April 1974, when a military coup overthrew the government. The Radio would then play an important role in giving light to the revolutionary act and ending that period of 48 years of dictatorship.

This essay will attempt to find out how National Radio, the very first Portuguese national broadcasting radio, was serving the political regime as an ideological channel of the New State between 1933 (when it was first created) and 1945 (by the end of Second World War).

In the beginning of the 20th century the political regimes were widely using the recent- created radio as a mean to disseminate their political ideologies, but not all of them were doing it in the same way.

António Oliveira Salazar, the Portuguese government chief, at first failed to understand the major potential of this communication mean. National Radio was never a propaganda mean comparable to what Goebbles had created in Germany or Stalin in Russia. It was nevertheless ";indispensable in helping the propaganda action of the regime" (Paulo, 1994:81), as a promoter of unity and continuity of the State.

Some considerations shall also be taken here on how censorship was an essential touchstone of the regime and how the construction of a collective social memory through the media legitimates the political power.

António Oliveira Salazar was nominated as President of the Council of Ministers in 1932. A new constitution was then written putting an end to the military dictatorship and beginning the New State. 1933 Constitution created a legal basis to Salazar's dictatorship, though it assured the freedom of expression, it also refers to ";special laws" that shall govern over that freedom so it should ";prevent preventively or by enforcement the perversion of public opinion considering its social force, and safeguard the moral integrity of citizens". Those 'special laws' are written on the Decree-law n. 22469, 11th April. The second article of this Decree-law states ";still subject to prior censorship are the publications defined by Press Law as well as the handbills, leaflets, posters and other publications, whenever its content embodies political or social nature". And so, this way the Prior Censorship is established in Portuguese Dictatorship, playing ever since an important role in its history.

Radio was formally limited to the powers of censorship. ";Speakers, journalist, producers and developers had negligible autonomy and they were highly controlled by censorship. Songs, poems, lectures, continuity texts and (of course!) news - all were carefully examined in a way that it wouldn't go against the principles of 1926 'revolution' and the 'New State' established by the Constitution of 1933" (The Years of Salazar, 2008:121).

Censorship was linked to the idea of political order and stability. The Regime would intervene in everything that was considered impure, immoral or that would go against public order, as well as the betrayal. Censorship grew stronger during the New State, becoming a permanent and solid legal body serving the State. ";Books, the press, radio, shows, fine arts, music, education, cinema and, later, the TV were all under the gaze of censors and under the threat of secret police" (Prata, Nair: 10). There is also self- censorship as journalists fear that certain texts will not be approved and ";many times, if the censor was known, he would cut some parts just to show that he did the work, but not showing interest in content" (Prata, Nair: 14).

The history of censorship in the period of Salazar was highly defined by the action of the Secretariat of Propaganda National (SPN), created in 1933 and led by António Ferro. This body, which later changed its name to National Secretariat of Information, Popular Culture and Tourism (SNI), was used ";not as a division of praise of government but as an instrument of government with a great mission to elevate the 'spirit' of the Portuguese people in light of its real value" (The Years of Salazar: 2008: 52). SPN aim was to promote the image of a new man, humble and obedient to take on with the values of the new regime: God, Country, Authority and Family and raise the 'policy of spirit ";that through culture and education would shape and restore the soul of the Portuguese motherland that Salazar believed was shaken to its principles by Liberal governments of the monarchy and the first republic. In the 'policy of spirit', the rural activity is presented as the true identity factor and Portuguese major element of order and stability. The idea of returning to rural harmony, exaltation of a poor but happy society, is present in the aesthetic forms that Ferro placed at the service of propaganda" (The Years of Salazar, 2008: 58).

One of the most important achievements of the SPN was to create an image of being in Portuguese through a series of ";references called 'popular culture', and reworked within the ideology of the regime, but without taking into account (...) the notions of order, citizenship and society. The intention is to portray the 'Portuguese soul,' ";giving the body an ideal Lusitania, which aggregates everyone from the villager to African colonist or to the sailor of Discovery" (Paulo, 1994: 117). Some of the initiatives of the SPN were the creation of ";competitions on several national issues typically considered as the Floral Games¹, sponsored by National Radio, such as the competition of The Most Portuguese Village in Portugal, the Flowered Seasons, the Windows and Regional Monographs" (Paulo, 1994: 81).

For many years the new regime saw little use in radio as an instrument of propaganda, ";Moreover, this was distinctive of the positions that were taken over, regarding the other media. Salazar showed no interest in mobilizing the masses (very typical in totalitarian governments), he'd rather not being questioned about his decisions towards the country" (Ribeiro, 2005: 112). As the radio station always focused on erudition, making a few concessions to taste and popular culture, we can conclude, according to Hannah Arendt's theory that Salazar’s government was one authoritarian regime and not a totalitarian² (Arendt, 1976: 335-345).

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¹ Competition promoted by National Radio with the intent to find the prince of the Portuguese poets. The poems taken into contest should be based on Portuguese cultural values.

² In "The Totalitarian System" (1976: 335-345), Hannah Arendt believes that what distinguishes the totalitarian from authoritarian regimes is that the former are based on the requirement to disclose information and the second discloses censorship.