Sierra Leone

[douglaswulf]

I thought the following data on Sierra Leone might be of interest...

Sierra Leone was sent 25 missing episodes of Doctor Who.

These were from The Crusade, Galaxy 4, The Myth Makers, The Massacre, The Celestial Toymaker, The Savages, and The Smugglers.

A few bits of data about Sierra Leone (from Wikipedia)...

From 1991 to 2002, the country suffered greatly under a devastating civil war. To end the civil war, UN and British forces disarmed 17,000 militia and rebels, in the largest UN peacekeeping act of the decade. UN forces returned primary responsibility for security in the area around the capital to Sierra Leone's police and armed forces in September, 2004; it was the last part of the country to be turned over. Some UN peacekeepers remained to assist the Sierra Leone government until the end of 2005. Because the political unrest of Sierra Leone in recent years U.S., U.K. and Australian embassies all currently discourage travel to Sierra Leone.

Inaugurated in 1963, The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) is a government-run station in charge of television and radio broadcasting in the country.

The personnel listed at this website might be a bit out-of-date...

institutions.africadatabase.org/data/i15842.html

The first director of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service, John Akar, is pictured here...

www.sierra-leone.org/heroes10.html

According to that website, it states, "Through him, Sierra Leone broadcasting was raised to the highest professional standards that became the envy of the region." Akar also wrote the music to the Sierra Leone National Anthem.

The following website contained some contact information:

www.sc-sl.org/hospitalitypackage-media.html

I do not see the address for the SLBS television, but here is the radio station information:

Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service
FM 99.9
Jomo Kenyatta Road
Freetown

Acting Director - Kasho Wellington
Land Line: 241919 /240327
Mobile: N.A.

Aisow Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is private TV station in Sierra Leone.

Aisow Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Television
54 Siaka Stevens Street
Freetown

Manager - Allieu Shaw
Land Line: 222880
Mobile: None

BBC Correspondents in Sierra Leone are:

Lansana Fofana
Land Line: 232490 /226239
Mobile: [phone]

Umaru Fofana
Land Line: None
Mobile: [phone]

FM relays of BBC World Service and Radio France Internationale are on the air in Freetown. Radio Sierra Leone, the oldest broadcasting service in English-speaking West Africa, broadcasts mainly in English, with regular news and discussion programs on several topics.

Having posted this, let me immediately state that I do not advocate pestering broadcasters in Sierra Leone. In fact, I don't advocate pestering anyone.

However, given that this data is freely available on the web and given that a journalist from BBC World Service Radio with contacts in the Zambia media posted here recently about contacting the head of ZNBC TV, I thought it possible that there might be someone with contacts in the media in Sierra Leone.

In particular, it would be interesting to discover if SLBS maintains an archive of any sort or if a film archive of some sort exists in Sierra Leone.

[douglaswulf]

The most intriguing episodes to search for in Sierra Leone would be from the third series of Doctor Who.

In August, 1970, Sierra Leone purchased the following stories:

Galaxy 4
The Myth Makers
The Massacre
The Celestial Toymaker
The Savages
The Smugglers

These stories were also purchased by Zambia. The purchase dates for Zambia are unknown, so Zambia could have bicycled its prints to Sierra Leone or vice versa.

Sierra Leone also purchased The Crusade, but it seems likely that its prints would have been bicycled to another nation that purchased the story later. These included (at least) Barbados, New Zealand, Mauritius, Jamaica, and Ethiopia.

Zambia could very well have bicycled its prints of The Crusade to Sierra Leone. I hope this was not the general trend, since it would be easier and more hopeful to search for missing Doctor Who prints in Zambia rather than in formerly war-torn Sierra Leone.

[douglaswulf]

Doctor Who fans:

If you find any good online forums or what have you that might reach people in Sierra Leone, below is the text a suggested posting you could put out there.

Doug

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The BBC is searching for lost episodes of classic television shows, including Doctor Who. Currently 106 episodes of Doctor Who are missing from the BBC archives. At least 75 of the 106 missing episodes were sent to Africa in the early 1970s as 16mm film recordings.

At least 24 of the 106 missing episodes were sent to Sierra Leone specifically.

You can see the full list of missing episodes of Doctor Who (as well as missing episodes from other British TV shows such as Adam Adamant Lives, A for Andromeda, etc.) at:

www.missing-episodes.com

If you think you may have a missing episode as a 16mm print or a copy in another format (8mm off-air or videotape), or have any information about these episodes, please contact the BBC by sending an email to:

[e-mail]

(That's info AT restoration-team.co.uk)

There is further information at:

www.restoration-team.co.uk/










LIST OF MISSING EPISODES SENT TO SIERRA LEONE
From the story The Crusade (sent in 1967)
(episode 2) The Knight of Jaffa
(episode 4) The War-Lords
(In addition, the surviving print of episode 1 The Lion is damaged)

The rest were sent sometime after August, 1970…

From the story Galaxy 4
(episode 1) Four Hundred Dawns
(episode 2) Trap of Steel
(episode 4) The Exploding Planet

From the story The Myth Makers
(episode 1) Temple of Secrets
(episode 2) Small Prophet Quick Return
(episode 3) Death of a Spy
(episode 4) Horse of Destruction

From the story The Massacre
(episode 1) War of God
(episode 2) The Sea Beggar
(episode 3) Priest of Death
(episode 4) Bell of Doom

From the story The Celestial Toymaker
(episode 1) The Celestial Toyroom
(episode 2) The Hall of Dolls
(episode 3) The Dancing Floor

From the story The Savages
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

From the story The Smugglers
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

[douglaswulf]

I posted the above message to a Sierra Leone forum...

www.network54.com/Forum/14229/

[willzurhorst]

Good idea !

[douglaswulf]

willzurhorst said:

Good idea !

In the past day or so, I've also posted similar area-specific postings to websites read by people in Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia. Also, I posted to a 16mm film forum.

I'd like to post a message to Ian Levine's forum to encourage others to look into posting on online discussion forms out there in the world, but I seem to be running into a technical glitch when I try to post there.

[willzurhorst]

Were is everyone on this forum anway. It says it has a 176 members and only two post.

[douglaswulf]

willzurhorst said:

Were is everyone on this forum anway. It says it has a 176 members and only two post.

Your guess is as good as mine. I hope more will actually speak up. We can't do all the work, can we?

[douglaswulf]

A bit of info on the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS TV). I wonder what would have been likely to happen to old 16mm prints left in this country from the 1970s. Would they have been tossed or would they have been kept due to perhaps some intrinsic value being seen in keeping them? I'm guessing the former, but I really don't know.

downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/sierra_leone/amdi_sl6_television.pdf

This states, in part...

Over the past five years the television market in Sierra Leone has seen only minimal change. Since television stations are expensive to run in comparison to radio stations, and since it is more expensive to own and operate a television set than a radio, Sierra Leoneans tend to be listeners rather than viewers. Viewing television in a post-war country with a weak economy is a luxury, not a necessity. Due to incessant power cuts, only the affluent with generators can watch TV (Tam-Baryoh, 2001).

SLBS, the state-run TV broadcaster, is trying to increase its national broadcast footprint. Until recently, SLBS-TV only covered Freetown, but now also transmits to the southern town of Bo and to Kenema in the east. SLBS primarily covers news from government functionaries and general national politics, as well as some environmental issues. It also shows movies, mainly from Nigeria.

At regional/local level, there is a second TV service, the private commercial ABC-TV, based in Freetown. It was established in 2005 and covers only half of the city. Apart from SLBS-TV and ABC-TV, there are no other TV stations operating in the country. TV signals from neighbouring Guinea (Conakry) can, however, be received, depending on the sophistication of the set, and some people subscribe to foreign satellite services.

Specific audience figures for the two domestic channels, SLBS-TV and ABC-TV, could not be obtained. Television ownership is thought to sit at just 7% of the population (World Bank, 2004), making the TV market a small one, and lack of reliable electricity means only those who can afford a private generator are able to watch. The only significant advertisers are mobile phone companies, oil marketers and Asian shopkeepers. Most businesses rely more on radio and newspapers for their advertising needs.

SLBS-TV was established in 1934, but was moribund from 1980 to 1993. It had stopped broadcasting due to mismanagement and the hard economic realities of the late 1980s. It was rehabilitated by the Valentine Strasser military government in early 1994 and initially began broadcasting in black-and-white. The government arguably has an overriding influence on the content of the state-owned station SLBS-TV. For example, in 2003, a popular programme called Bottom Line,which provided a critique of policy issues, was stopped. Its producer, frustrated with censorship, took up a job with an NGO (Sesay & Hughes, 2005). There are plans to remove government’s excessive control over the SLBS. An 18-month preparatory period for the SLBS to become a public broadcaster began in October 2005.

The privately-owned television station established in 2005, ABC-TV, is owned by Sierra Leonean, Allieu Shaw, and has a slightly more international focus than SLBS.

There is not much difference between the programming on the two channels, as they both re-broadcast from international stations such as CNN and the BBC. Politics dominates SLBS-TV, while commerce takes precedence on ABC-TV. When ABC-TV does allow political and local content, it is usually sponsored. A discussion or sports programme may be associated with or sponsored by a political interest so that it can bring the much-needed funds into the station. SLBS-TV also carries commercials. ABC-TV programmes are mostly sourced from the US, UK and South Africa. However, local programmes are occasionally featured, depending on the availability of space and time.

The quality of the programmes on the two local TV stations shows signs of improvement – as they are now moving from ready-made programmes from Europe and America to doing local programmes from the provinces. However, the news programming is still mainly sourced from foreign television, leaving much need for increased local content.

[lancem]

Hello Again Doug and all,

I apologise for the delay in posting here of late, have been bussy of late, so my apologies. I have currently posted an article on missing-episodes.com about my latest attempt to attempt to assertain what the state of the SLBC archives at present are. It sounds like thier archives are in somewhat of a dissaray, my contact even stated that the current arrairs of today in the archives are in disarray as well. Apparently the SLBC is currently undergoing a restructuring of sorts in its staff and personell. My contact has stated to me that once this restructuring of personall and staff is completed he will be able to present my request to the appropriate staff in the archives to have a look for old dr who prints. Here is hoping in the chaotic state of the archives there is an episode or two hidden away.

Cheers, Lance.

[douglaswulf]

lancem said:

Hello Again Doug and all,

I apologise for the delay in posting here of late, have been bussy of late, so my apologies. I have currently posted an article on missing-episodes.com about my latest attempt to attempt to assertain what the state of the SLBC archives at present are. It sounds like thier archives are in somewhat of a dissaray, my contact even stated that the current arrairs of today in the archives are in disarray as well. Apparently the SLBC is currently undergoing a restructuring of sorts in its staff and personell. My contact has stated to me that once this restructuring of personall and staff is completed he will be able to present my request to the appropriate staff in the archives to have a look for old dr who prints. Here is hoping in the chaotic state of the archives there is an episode or two hidden away.

Cheers, Lance.

Lance:

No worries about delays in posting. You do your fair share of posting at all the missing episode forums to be sure.

You state that SLBC is currently undergoing a "restructuring." This could be a restructuring that has been going on for years honestly. The country itself is still struggling after the prolonged civil war and who can tell if the situation at SLBC will genuinely improve soon. The restructuring may not be completed soon.

I recall a picture of a city in the former Czechoslovakia that I showed to a Czech friend of mine at a time when that country was still under communism. There was a scaffolding on a particular building and I mentioned that it seemed to be undergoing renovation. My Czech friend replied that this particular building had been "undergoing renovation" for three decades.

However, just as the wonderful architecture of the former Czechoslovakia slept for forty years only to emerge again in the last decade, it is possible that missing BBC films have just been sitting on the shelf in some back room in Sierra Leone or in archives in other African nations. There is certainly no guarantee that this has happened, but the chaotic conditions allow that it could have occurred and it should be checked.

Thanks for your excellent investigative work!

Doug

[douglaswulf]

At the missing-episodes forum, andybell posted the following:

++++++++++++++++++++

Re: Africa Progress 2011
« Reply #154 on Dec 13, 2011, 1:32am »

Was reading through the comments of the Guardian article on the recent find and came across a poster who posted:

"An ex-brother-in-law of mine from Sierra Leone claimed in the early 1990s that he had seen a stack of tape reels of Dr. Who shows archived in a Freetown broadcasting studio. Some of the more intrepid Whoies may want to follow up on this as I've since lost contact with the man.

www.slbc.sl/ "

Not sure if Sierra Leone has been searched or not (I'm new, still reading through the thread!), just thought I'd bring it to someones attention

++++++++++++++++++++

In reply, Paul Vanezis reported the following sad news ...

++++++++++++++++++++

Re: Africa Progress 2011
« Reply #155 on Dec 13, 2011, 3:05pm »

Hi Andy,

Well it's a good spot, although a few people have already emailed me with the info. I can now confirm that there is no material in Sierra Leone, but I can also say that we think the report is correct, that there were Dr. Who and other films in Sierra Leone in the early 1990's. In fact, we think we know which ones.

I'm afraid that between 1991 and 2002 the civil war prevented any meaningful exploration of their archives and we very recently discovered that the TV station, including their entire archive, was destroyed during the civil war, we think in 1999.

The list of material lost is far too distressing to print here.

Regards,

Paul

++++++++++++++++++++

Note: The list could potentially have been every missing Hartnell episode apart from Mission to the Unknown, the missing episodes of The Daleks' Masterplan, and the final missing episode of The Tenth Planet. It is tragic that this opportunity to recover the bulk of missing episodes from the Hartnell era was missed in the pre-civil-war years of the 1980s and (early) 1990s.