The Media and the FalklandsThe Falklands war was the most controversially reported conflict of Britain's since 1945 and the Second World War. The coverage of the war was entirely at the mercy of the Ministry of Defence, with absolutely no scope for independent enterprise. Three British television reporters, two camera crews, two radio reporters, two photographers and fifteen newspaper correspondents were allowed to travel with the Task Force. The correspondents were accompanied by a team of Ministry Defence civilian relations officers. This team would usually man phones and arrange visits for military personal however now was placed between journalists who were eager to find out what was happening, and the military, who did not trust the journalists and wanted to keep everything secret. Anger in London at the stemmed initially from a lack of any news being reported at all. The Task Force was not equipped to transmit any television pictures and satellite usage was reserved for military usage. |
Once the war began, censorship with the Task Force was carried out efficiently and sensibly by service officers. The real restrictions to material occurred in London by a variety of uncoordinated interests in the defence bureaucracy.
Tensions between the Task Force and reporters intensified when sensitive material was leaked to the press in an effort to intimidate Argentinean politicians; a plan which arguably cost many British lives. Although easy to ignore, the important fact that most editors did not believe war would ever occur and subsequently were not experienced enough, or physically fit enough for their job. In Britain, the press completely lacked self censorship. Newspapers competed with each other to try and guess possible locations and dates from highly unreliable American sources. Some tabloid newspapers, especially 'The Sun' sought to entice its readers into an emphatic rage. Most infamous of these was a competition to 'Sponsor a sidewinder' (a British missile fired from Harrier jets. Information was given to the public according to the conflicts popularity in polls, meaning some information was several days late being reported to the British public. |
The war was reported controversially in Argentina too. Selected war correspondants were flown to Port Stanley, where they repeated variations of the same heroics from Argentine conscripted soldiers.
Official leaks of information, and faked eye witness accounts saw some newspapers rise drastically in size. The most famous headline "We're winning" occurred to demonstrate the bravery of the soldiers fighting. The reporting was not without its mistakes however. HMS Invincible was repeatedly sunk by Argentine media in a variety of different formats and different occasions depending on how popularity was amongst the population. Three British reporters who attempted to report the war from an Argentinean perspective were jailed for the remainder of the conflict. |