Estonia, like Slovenia, was a part of the Communist world that was thoroughly exposed to the West (through Finnish television in Estonia's case).
This is a documentary about the impact of Finnish television to Estonian citizens. The film makes some very interesting remarks to how people in Tallinn could receive TV from Helsinki.
During the military dictatorship which ruled Brazil between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s, it was instated the nation's first content rating system for television. But it was also the regime's official censorship service (many musical acts, news stories - on any media - and television programming considered critical of that time's regime or "inappropriate" for that time's audicences, based on what the military believed, were censored).
And before all non-news television programming there was not only the content rating information, but the actual Federal Censorship certificate.
Here are a couple of examples, one from Rede Globo, before an episode of the original
Hawaii Five-O
(rated "Livre" - "Free", "Clear" to be aired at any time):
And from the now-defunct TV Tupi, before an episode of one of Silvio Santos' shows (now the owner of SBT),
Silvio Santos Diferente
("A Different Silvio Santos", rated "Proibido para menores de 18 anos" - "Prohibited for people under 18 years", which could be aired only after 11pm):
Also, several promos, from many stations and networks, with still images of the shows being promoted (since they were rated something other than "Livre" - the Federal Censorship certificate at the start and the announcement at the end are mocks, but everything in between are actual promotions):
After the fall of the military regime, the end of the Federal Censorship Service and the instatement of the 1988 Constitution, a new content rating system (otherwise known as "Classificação Indicativa" - "Indicative/Informative Classification") was created to replace that which came with the Federal Censorship Service.
The current version of the system (whose last major revision was in the late 2000s) uses the same ratings for film, broadcast television, cable television and video games.
These are the ratings:
L - Livre para todos os públicos ("Free for all audiences")
10 - Não recomendado para menores de 10 anos ("Not recommended for people under 10 years")
12 - Não recomendado para menores de 12 anos ("Not recommended for people under 12 years")
14 - Não recomendado para menores de 14 anos ("Not recommended for people under 14 years")
16 - Não recomendado para menores de 16 anos ("Not recommended for people under 16 years")
18 - Não recomendado para menores de 18 anos ("Not recommended for people under 18 years")
L- and 10-rated programming on broadcast TV can air at any time, 12-rated programming may only air after 8pm; 14-rated, after 9pm; 16-rated, after 10pm; 18-rated, after 11pm. (Times valid for all Brazilian time zones - before the late 2000s revision, only Brasília time had to be respected. For that reason, Rede Globo launched a feed for the Manaus time zone and, during Brazilian Summer Time, the areas of the Brasília time zone that don't observe BRST. That feed is called "Rede Fuso", "Time Zone Network".)
Cable programming can air at any time, regardless of its content rating, mostly because those channels don't need a government license to operate, since they don't use RF spectrum, and because of the parental controls widespread in cable and satellite services around the country (parental controls were only introduced in broadcast TV with the introduction of DTT).
Kendo Yanar That documentary looks brilliant, shame I am having trouble concentration with the Estonian, Russian dubber and reading subtitles at once. Will keep an eye out for an undubbed version.
Viakenny's post reminded me of the situation in Spain under Franco's dictatorship -- but things were probably even more tightly controlled in Spain. From John Hooper's
The New Spaniards
, about TV censorship in the 1960s and '70s:
"[Dominican monk and state censor] Fr Antonio was not just concerned with sex and violence. After seeing a French comedy film, he wrote that 'Although the intention may be humorous, the Gestapo and their chief in Paris are held up to ridicule in their behaviour and references to the Fuehrer.' Indeed, he seems to have had a remarkably sensitive set of political antennae for a priest. Mindful of Spain's position as a colonial power, he cut from a film called Jaguar a phrase of how the English exploited the Africans. Soon afterwards, relations with Britain entered one of their periodic crises over Gibraltar and the records show that Fr Antonio sent in another report suggesting that the phrase be reinserted."
And Timothy Green's
The Universal Eye
discusses the situation in Salazar-ruled Portugal:
"The Portuguese, incidentally, have the most curious legislation I encountered anywhere in the world regarding television programming. All public entertainment in Portugal has to be licensed as being suitable either for ages up to six, up to twelve or over seventeen. Since television viewers cannot be segregated by age groups all programs must be deemed suitable for viewing by twelve-year-olds. This totally limits their television output. As a Portuguese television executive lamented: 'Can you name me a modern play that is suitable for twelve-year-olds?'"
Meanwhile, democratic France had a far more logical system. According to Green, "throughout a program considered unsuitable for children [because of either sex or violence] a small white rectangle is shown in one corner of the screen."
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Soviet Central TV start-up sequence (national anthem), recorded in 1984:
From Yugoslavia, a well-produced Slovenian spot intended to stress how important tourism and hospitality are to Slovenia, 1986 (This commercial, heavy on national pride, later became a symbol of Slovenia's independence movement):
Staying in what was then Yugoslavia, but moving to the Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a bloc of commercials from Sarajevo television, 1983:
From 1970s Yugoslavia, a Slovenian commercial for the Zastava 101 car (a forerunner of the Yugo), featuring the theme from
Midnight Cowboy
:
Also from Yugoslavia, here are Slovenian-language TV listings from 1976 with lineups from TV stations in Ljubljana, the joint Yugoslav second network, Zagreb, Koper, as well as Austrian, Italian, and Hungarian TV (Yugoslavia was, I believe, the only Communist country that published TV listings from Western countries):
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Late news and weather from the Zagreb TV station (now Croatia's HRT), 1989:
Did you know that a Yugoslav TV station was once redistributed terrestrially throughout Italy? Here's an article from Transidiffusion:
Anti-NATO, anti-American propaganda spots from Milosevic-ruled Serbia (actually the self-styled, rump "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", although he had effectively lost the control of Montenegro at the time, so it was really just Serbia) during the Kosovo War, 1999, as seen on state broadcaster RTS:
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Via DigitalSpy user KarlHyde, a collection of East German commercials from the 1960s -- the first one starts at the 1:27 mark:
According to KarlHyde, "Ads were banned from television in 1976 because high-quality consumer goods were scarcely available and the government didn't want to increase demand."
Last edited by WW Update on 18 March 2013 5:30am - 3 times in total
