MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Boletin Malvinas” two-year daily broadcasting celebrated in Argentina

The brief report, 9 to 12 minutes long is aired by LRA24, the Rio Grande public radio system, AM 640 Khz, and reaches Falklands territory “with no problem”.

The midnight and early morning news broadcasted to the Falkland Islands, (Boletin Malvinas or Argentine News Bulletin) in English, from Tierra del Fuego, has completed two years in the air and the event was celebrated by Argentina's Public media national system.

 The brief report, with general news, 9 to 12 minutes long is aired by LRA24, the Rio Grande public radio system, AM 640 Khz, and reaches all of Falklands territory “with no problem”.

According to the Argentine media the purpose of the daily report is to “break the media barrier” of the Islands where Argentine television signals can't reach and “to guarantee the right to information of the English speaking population”.

Marcelo Ayala head of Argentine news broadcasted overseas, said the idea of airing news to the Falklands had been around for some time, but was finally agreed a couple of years ago during a meeting of Argentine public radio managers.

“From then on it was very quick, an editor was named and in coordination with the Rio Grande station, the schedule and duration of the daily report was agreed. In 2013 the first trials took place”, revealed Ayala.

“No Argentine doubts that the Malvinas Islands belong to us and thus the state has the obligation to keep all of the inhabitants of that territory informed. This is a right under Argentine law and is guaranteed through the public radio system that has global reach”, said Ayala.

Since in Argentine territory live many different foreign communities, ”the people of Malvinas have the right to receive the news in their language. It's also a way of ending with all that nonsense from the (1982) war when the first thing done was to interrupt English broadcasting and replace it with a Spanish transmission“.

Apparently the report is prepared and edited in Buenos Aires and then sent to Tierra del Fuego for its airing. ”At first there were adverse reactions in internet and local media from the Islands but with time things quieted down and maybe leaving aside the sovereignty dispute, communications is always positive for people to be informed“.

Argentina's broadcast overseas service is provided daily by internet and short wave for all the world in eight different languages. ”International media have their own global agenda and they have Argentina under a certain profile. The idea is to show our own reality from government policies to the massive cultural activities that take place in Argentina”.