Written evidence from Jorge da Paz Rodrigues
PROPOSED CLOSING
DOWN OF
THE BBC PORTUGUESE
LANGUAGE SERVICE
The announcement of the closure of the Portuguese
Language Service to Africa is lamentable and wrong for the following
reasons:
1. As fairly new and still developing democracies,
aggravated by the fact of the prevailing illiteracy whose peoples
very much depend on the easy accessibility of radio, in which
the BBC Portuguese Language Service has been a very important
source of independent news, to stop it now is a clear dis-service
to their own development;
2. There are about 245 millions of people speaking
portuguese around the world besides Portugal and Brasil: Angola,
Cape Verde islands, Guiné-Bissau, S.Tomé e Príncipe
islands, Mozambique, Timor, Macau, etc;
3. Apart from that, it has been a long tradition
for a lot of those peoples to depend on the BBC as their only
source of news;
4. Considering the many different dialects, in which
governments such as the Angolan one adopted the Portuguese language
as a unifying factor, the BBC to stop its transmissions is not
only a big mistake but also a sad departure from the traditional
and long standing as well as most appreciated British solidarity.
5. Trust and Will be grateful that you consider these
important points and take the due action at the announced committee
review over the proposed closures at the BBC World Service.
14 February 2011
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