Falkland Islands News Network - Time to bomb it?

Those of us in the Falkland Islands fortunate enough not only to get TV reception, but also to enjoy the varied range of channels offered by KTV, may have come across the satirical news programme, The Daily Show. This programme, which is broadcast by CNN and hosted by Jon Stewart uses a conventional news desk format to take an irreverent and sometimes hilarious look at the stories currently in the news.

Presumably to avoid legal action, but also for the benefit of any idiots who might be watching, the screening of The Daily Show is preceded by a disclaimer which states that the views expressed in the programme are not those of the broadcaster and have not been fully thought out. It also states that the presenter and the reporters featured are not journalists.

Sane regular readers of the Falkland Islands News Network (FINN), if there are any, and particularly anyone who has read an article of December 3rd entitled: Falklands’ Oil –Time to Defuse the Bomb, must surely be wondering why, if in the name of free speech we must permit this kind of incoherent dribble, it cannot also be preceded by a similar disclaimer.

The author, FINN’s agency chief, editor, reporter and tea trolly lady, J.Brock, who is also responsible for other electronic publications, such as Your Mental Health Magazine, says of a possible bonanza for the Falklands resulting from the forthcoming oil drilling programme by Desire Petroleum, “It’s a nice pipe dream, but no thanks.” Speak for yourself, J.Brock. Throughout its history, the Falkland Islands have not only welcomed, but, indeed, depended upon successive bonanzas. Where would we have been without the huge increase in ships failing to get round Cape Horn without damage from the mid 1840s until the opening of the Panama Canal, giving us the opportunity to condemn any vessel which had a useful cargo? Where would we have been without successive wars in Europe and elsewhere, to push up the demand for wool to make uniforms, during much of the first part of the twentieth century? Where are we now with the very squid that from the mid-eighties has turned us from a make-do-and-mend community into avid consumers of foreign travel, exotic nosh and wide-screen tellies, threatening to piss off for good?

We need another bonanza; the continuing growth of retail outlets in Stanley and the cost of the number of high-priced second-hand executives from the UK demands it. Tourism won’t do it, at least not if an aversion to catching foreign diseases kills off the cruise ship business and Argentina and the MOD continue to make it impossible for more than a handful of people to get here.

Of course, J.Brock, who older readers may remember as the infamous Jaunita Borck [sic], one time publisher and editor of the smudgily photocopied and often hilariously mis-spelled Teaberry Express, is entitled to express her views, but what is worrying is not that in this one instance she might be taken seriously, but that her views in general might be taken to be representative of those of the government or people of these islands. If we can’t legally gag her, or subject her to the same scrutiny that the Media Trust exercises over Penguin News and FIRS, a disclaimer might be the only answer.