Pcj radio international3/10/2023 During the Second World War both these broadcasting systems were shut down by the Axis Powers that conquered the Netherlands and its colony in Southeast Asia (Germany and Japan), but in 19 both systems were revived to make propaganda for the pro-colonial cause. In addition to the broadcasting system within the archipelago, there was also an international station to broadcast from the Netherlands to Indonesia. They relied on broadcasting infrastructure set up in the 1930s when Dutch colonial elites had used radio to bolster the imperial ties. On the other hand, the Dutch also used radio in their attempts to annihilate Sukarno’s republic and reestablish colonial rule in Indonesia. Building on these experiences and with the radio hardware they acquired from Japanese storages after the end of the Second World War Indonesian republicans succeeded in setting up an effective broadcasting system to mobilize political support for their cause and their (para)military campaigns (Wild,, passim). Nonetheless, the Japanese employed Indonesians to operate these stations who, as a result, had access to equipment and received training (Wild,, pp. During the Japanese occupation, which started in March 1942, all radio stations in the archipelago were placed under strict central supervision and were obliged to broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda. In the 1930s, Dutch authorities had allowed Indonesians to broadcast an “Eastern programme” on the frequencies of the colonial broadcasting company that had stations throughout the archipelago as long as they refrained from “political propaganda” (Witte,, chapter 5). In the preceding decades Indonesians had the opportunity to gain experience with radio under the auspices of foreign occupiers. The Indonesian republicans, headed by President Sukarno, used broadcasting as a means to build the Indonesian nation. Although academics working in these fields have used media-sources, their main focus is on visual sources, overlooking (or rather not hearing) auditory cultures (Scales, ).ĭuring the decolonization war in Indonesia (1945–1949), radio played an important role, and both sides used the medium to rally support for their political goals. Considering the historiography of decolonization, or the rise and fall of colonialism more broadly, sound has also been a topic of neglect. In recent years, pioneering studies have appeared about “guerrilla radio” broadcasting by liberation movements in Southern Africa and the Caribbean by scholars who have found relevant archives in the regions they describe (Bronfman, Lekgoathi, Moloi, & Saíde Eds, ). One episode that has attracted some attention is the debacle of British radio-propaganda during the Suez Crisis, but that is connected to the twin failure of western broadcasters to reach out to anti-communist activists during the Hungarian Uprising that took place at the same time (Rawnsley, ). Looking at British and US literature about international radio broadcasting, the main focus has been on the Cold War. In the current historiography, however, the nexus between radio and decolonization has barely been explored. In response, Western stations extended the number of broadcasting languages to engage with more listener-groups abroad. As countries became independent, they started to operate transmitters to reach out to audiences inside and outside their borders. Decolonization, on the other hand, had an effect on the international media landscape as it led to an increase in the number of broadcasted languages and voices. Radio broadcasting was an important instrument, both for European proponents of empire and anti-colonial nationalists, to mobilize support for their respective political ideals. In fact, there was an important historical contingency between the two phenomena. The golden age of radio broadcasting as a long-distance mass medium between the 1930s and the 1970s for an important part overlapped with the end of the European colonial empires during the era of decolonization (1945–1975).
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