Arts, heritage and media
Radio Television of Djibouti (RTD): the state broadcaster in Somali, Afar, Arabic and French
Radio Television of Djibouti (RTD) is Djibouti's national broadcaster and its only licensed one. It broadcasts in Arabic, French, Afar, Somali and English. Radio began in Djibouti on 18 August 1941, and French state broadcasting opened a TV station there in April 1967. Reporters Without Borders says RTD is used for government propaganda; the opposition station La Voix de Djibouti broadcasts from abroad.
What it is
RTD (French: Radiodiffusion Télévision de Djibouti) is the national broadcaster of Djibouti, based in Djibouti city. It broadcasts in Arabic, French, Afar, Somali and English, and its in-house band is Groupe RTD (Radio Television of Djibouti, Wikipedia; RTD). Its programmes include news, culture, series and entertainment. By the Badr-4 satellite its signal reaches North Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and some programmes stream online.
Beginnings: 1941 to 1977
- 18 August 1941: "Radio Djibouti" began on shortwave from the colony of French Somaliland, then loyal to Vichy France, mainly to protest against the British naval blockade (Wikipedia).
- April 1967: the French state broadcaster ORTF set up a regional TV station in Djibouti city, with a 50 kW transmitter on channel 5. It rebroadcast programmes from France, with some local programming in Afar, Somali and Arabic (Wikipedia; Television Factbook 1972–73).
- 1974: first colour broadcast; full colour by 1977.
After independence
At independence in 1977 the new republic took over broadcasting. Wikipedia says the staff were poorly trained and the equipment outdated. In 1983, with West German help, a transmission centre was built at Doraleh near the capital, with medium wave (1,539 kHz, 20 kW), shortwave (4,780 kHz, 20 kW) and FM across the country. A TV network for the main inland towns followed in 1986, and Japan funded a new production centre when RTD was making only 20 percent of what it aired (Wikipedia; UNESCO, World Communications 1975).
RTD's powerful medium wave transmitter also carries the US government's Arabic station Radio Sawa across East Africa (Wikipedia).
Press freedom
Wikipedia records that the government allows no other broadcasters, and that Reporters Without Borders describes RTD as used for government propaganda (Wikipedia). The BBC's Djibouti media guide, last updated in April 2023, says there are no private TV or radio stations, that the government owns the main newspaper and RTD, and quotes RSF: "The repressive [judicial] arsenal deployed against journalists means they live in fear." It also notes local FM relays of the BBC on 99.2 and a powerful medium wave transmitter carrying Voice of America in English, French and Somali to East Africa. Djibouti had 548,000 internet users in December 2021, 54 percent of the population (BBC News, Djibouti media guide). The opposition station La Voix de Djibouti broadcast online from Belgium for ten years and in June 2020 returned to shortwave from a rented transmitter in Bulgaria (Radio Eins, 2020).
Read more
Sources
- Radio Television of Djibouti, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- RTD · rtd.dj
- Television Factbook 1972–73 · worldradiohistory.com
- UNESCO, World Communications 1975 · worldradiohistory.com
- BBC News, Djibouti media guide · bbc.com
- Radio Eins, 2020 · radioeins.de
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