The Franco dictatorship established from its first tremors a fight against freedom of the press, managing not only to eradicate it in Spain for forty years but also to persecute all those who dared to think differently from the regime.
Media outlets that did not represent Francoist values were harassed, and their journalists were shot, imprisoned, or exiled. In contrast to journalistic plurality, dictator Francisco Franco created the NO-DO, an acronym for "Noticiarios y Documentales de España" (Newsreels and Documentaries of Spain), through which he controlled the image he wanted to project of his government.
"The NO-DO was the audiovisual arm of Francoist media policy," explains Mario Ferrer Peñate, a graduate in Journalism and Art History and doctor from the University of La Laguna, in an interview with *La Voz*. "It is a tool of ideological propaganda for the regime," he indicates. His work, through **Memoria de los Jueves** (Memory of the Thursdays), has made it possible to recover a fundamental part of Lanzarote's audiovisual history throughout the 20th century, the videos of the Francoist newsreel where fragments of Lanzarote and La Graciosa were shown.
Despite offering a "disoriented and quite partial view," these images are among the few that exist of Lanzarote from that era, explains the graduate. Therefore, their value is greater. "They are the only audiovisual sources from this period," adds Ferrer, who highlights the significant historical value of these recordings, where "spaces, figures, and inaugurations that were important for the island appear."
Ferrer defines the NO-DO newsreel as "the fundamental tool" of Francoist propaganda, as it had the exclusive right to provide information about Spain to foreign countries and was broadcast weekly in cinemas with updated information. "It reviewed current events in about ten minutes, but always from a very controlled perspective, with the idea of selling a vision of a prosperous Spain," he adds. Therefore, it omitted all the repression that the regime was exercising over the population.
Repression against the media
Ferrer, on Francoist repression: "They eliminated all newspapers, all media, or directly killed journalists who were on the other side"Upon coming to power, Franco "dismantled the previous system, a republican democratic system where there was freedom of opinion for the creation of new media," the historian continues. Instead, he created an official network of media aligned with the regime and controlled by the military. "They eliminated all newspapers, all media, or directly killed journalists who were from the other side," adds the journalist as well.
After the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), only one newspaper remained in the province of Las Palmas, which was called Falange. "There were daily directives for the press that dictated what had to be published, and all newspapers said the same thing everywhere," the historian continues.
This historian from Lanzarote explains that the audiovisual communication model of Francoism was based on what was being done in Portugal, in the Italy of fascist Mussolini, and in Nazi Germany.
From Official Regime Visits to Tourism Development
In his research, Ferrer has analyzed a total of sixteen newsreel pieces featuring the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. Most of them correspond to the last decades of the regime, between the sixties and seventies, coinciding with Francoism's objective of promoting tourism in the country.
The first publication of the NO-DO newsreel was in 1943, according to the archives available at Radio Televisión Española. The first newsreels of the Franco regime that showed images of Lanzarote took place in the forties and fifties. Since then, only recordings of four newsreels have appeared to date. The other twelve correspond to the second stage of the Franco regime, between the sixties and seventies.
From the dictator Francisco Franco, to members of his government such as the undersecretary of the Presidency of the Government of Spain, Luis Carrero Blanco, they visited the island to inaugurate works or carry out some public act
The island's appearances in early newsreels were only a few seconds long and lacked context. The Undersecretary of the Presidency of the Spanish Government, Luis Carrero Blanco, visited Lanzarote and La Graciosa as part of a trip through the archipelago in 1947. At that time, he was received on the different islands by inhabitants dressed in traditional clothing, who performed typical dances. In the case of Lanzarote, NO-DO briefly showed Carrero Blanco on an excursion riding a camel in the Montañas del Fuego.
That February 10, 1947, a fragment about La Graciosa was also published, featuring an interview with the island's supposed first settler
Carrero Blanco's visit to Lanzarote. From minute 07:09 to 07:44.
Regarding the political message hidden behind those images, this historian explains that "it is always a message that the State is supporting the development of Lanzarote, La Graciosa, taking action." "There is a somewhat disoriented image," he adds, since the reporters "come from Madrid and often do not know what is happening in Lanzarote; there are some errors, inaccuracies, they do not mention the island's problems, such as water scarcity, emigration, political repression, the black market, and poverty."
The biased image presented by the regime also concealed controversies such as the political repression suffered in Lanzarote. For example, that experienced by teachers who were branded as enemies of the regime, or the people who were arrested and sent to concentration camps on other islands.
This Francoist newsreel omitted all the negative things happening on the island, but it also overlooked positive developments such as "the development of fishing or the installation of the first urban water treatment plant in Europe, which is in Lanzarote," Ferrer continues.
César Manrique, the Atlantis Tunnel Incursion, and Tourism Development
In the final part of the regime, some Francoist newsreels began to appear in color. The researcher explains that there are longer pieces from Lanzarote, especially focused on the **beginning of the island's tourist development**, on the figure of **César Manrique**, or the visits of the **Princes of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofía**, even the filming of a commercial.Among the images disseminated by the regime, the 1963 New Year's greeting stands out, featuring César Manrique. That same year, the first international tourist air assembly was held, and the assembly members landed in Lanzarote to ride camels again.Years later, the visit of the Francoist Minister of Tourism, Fraga Iribarne, was publicized. He attended several tourist complexes in Lanzarote and the inauguration of the **Monument to the Peasant** in 1968, created by Manrique.
From then on, the color page of NO-DO published several fragments about Montañas del Fuego, César Manrique, a scientific expedition to the Atlantic Tunnel, and even an advertisement for a Seat 127 filmed on the island in 1972. In addition to the aforementioned visit by the princes of Spain.Among the recovered recordings is a more extensive fragment about an underwater excursion in the **Atlantis Tunnel**, belonging to the **flow of the La Corona Volcano** or a San Ginés regatta
In the case of the Tunnel of Atlantis, the images were recorded in 1972 and it was a scientific endeavor that sought to find the exit to the sea of this volcanic tube. Ultimately, this four-week expedition could not achieve its objective, but the recordings obtained show what that space was like more than fifty years ago.
Among the images captured by the Francoist newsreel, in 1977 and after the dictator's death, the color page of NODO produced a documentary about César Manrique's house in the Tahíche Lighthouse, in Teguise