Sports Journalism at the height of Portugal’s Dictatorship: Bureaucracy and Censorship (1935-1960)

Abstract

During Portugal’s dictatorship (1926-1974) there were said to be three pillars to appease its population: Fado (the music connected to culture and tradition), Fátima (symbolizing the Catholic religion) and Football (the most popular sport). Because of the importance of these three F’s, news outlets that specialized in these subjects were, in theory, given a bigger freedom. And yet, all periodical publications were targeted by the Portuguese censorship and were regularly constrained by it. With this in mind this study will centre on the relationship between the censorship services and the journalistic publications of the third F, newspapers and news bulletins that were mainly concerned with covering sports and sporting events. We will analyse the censorship records and public archives during the height of the dictatorial regime, 1935-1960, in an effort to perceive how these journalistic publications were controlled through bureaucracy and surveillance.

Keywords

• Censorship
• Dictatorship
• Portugal
• Sports Journalism
• Surveillance