Maarten1

International News Presentation: Past and Present

And... this is a newscast from Oranjestad, Aruba (which is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but hard--if not impossible--to spot). The language is Papiamento, which derives from African languages and Portugese, with some influences from Dutch, English and Spanish.

Due to TeleAruba's Vimeo settings, it cannot be embedded, please follow this link: https://vimeo.com/227346451

Emergency Broadcasts

In The Netherlands, the country I live in, the government can ‘seize’ airtime on radio and television channels. Of course, this power is in a democracy only used in case of events of high importance. As far as I know, it has been used at least one time: for a speech by the Prime Minister in the 1970s on the oil crisis (when NL was cut off Arab oil). It may have been used as well for the abdication speech by Queen Juliana in 1980 and Queen Beatrix in 2013, but I’m not sure.

In case of emergency, the emergency broadcasts are carried out by one (or more) of the 13 regional broadcasters, in case of a fire or flooding for instance. In an official contract between the broadcasters and the emergency services, rules are set out. For instance, when the broadcaster receives a call from the authorities, the broadcaster has to verify the command with the authorities. A verification fax will be send by the authorities before emergency broadcasts start. The authorities can issue a statement which will have to be broadcast on radio, television and online.

During the Cold War, three emergency studios existed: one in Hilversum (the seat of Dutch radio and television), one in Lopik (just under the biggest FM transmitter) and one in the government’s emergency seat in The Hague. As far as I could find, only the Hilversum studios are fully operational.

That it is important to spread the venues, became clear in 2015, when an “armed man” (later he turned out to bear a fake gun) entered the buildings of the national broadcaster NOS to read a message on the main evening news. Since the entire building, including the MCR, was evacuated, no broadcasts could be made from there. One man hided from the police services and went on working in the MCR, so the television services could resume from the parliamentary studio in The Hague. (Side note: a press conference from the mayor of Hilversum, just a few kilometers outside the Mediapark, was transmitted on Dutch tv via the VRT in Belgium and the little parliament studio in The Hague).

For the local broadcaster I work for, we only have a scenario ready in case of the decease of a member of the royal family, an emergency scenario named ‘Dossier Orange’