Politicians
in The Hague however were not charmed by tv-programming from the high
seas. They rushed through the so-called “anti-REM-wet”,
legislation making broadcasts from structures on the Dutch
Continental shelf illegal. That became possible because of a
UN-resolution concerning the rights of coastal states over their part
of the Continental shelf. This led professor Eric Suy, a resident of
Knokke-Heist (Belgium), to publish a study in 1965 about the
“Volkenrechtelijke aspekten van de REM-affaire”. From 1974 to
1983 Suy was Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs at the United
Nations.
In
the meantime, in December 1964, the owners of the REM-island,
announced that its TV operations had been sold to a British company,
High Seas Television Ltd. Ownership of the REM-island itself was
transferred to a Panamanian company. But it was all to no avail.
On
the morning of December 17th 1964 a flotilla of boats accompanied by
police helicopters arrived at the REM-island. Dozens of police
officers disembarked, and at 7 minutes past 9, Radio Noordzee went
off the air in the middle of Anneke Grönloh’s “Paradiso”.
More of AJ's radio- and other anecdotes.
More of AJ's radio- and other anecdotes.
