Gente's "Estamos ganando" headline ("We're winning")
Selected war correspondents were regularly flown to Port Stanley in military aircraft to report on the war. Back in Buenos Aires newspapers and magazines faithfully reported on "the heroic actions of the largely conscript army and its successes".
Officers from the intelligence services were attached to the newspapers and 'leaked' information confirming the official communiqués from the government. The glossy magazines Gente and Siete Días swelled to sixty pages with colour photographs of British warships in flames – many of them faked – and bogus eyewitness reports of the Argentine commandos' guerrilla war on South Georgia (6 May) and an already dead Pucará pilot's attack on HMS Hermes (Lt. Daniel Antonio Jukic had been killed at Goose Green during a British air strike on 1 May). Most of the faked photos actually came from the tabloid press. One of the best remembered headlines was "Estamos ganando" ("We're winning") from the magazine Gente, that would later use variations of it.
The Argentine troops on the Falkland Islands could read Gaceta Argentina—a newspaper intended to boost morale among the servicemen. Some of its untruths could easily be unveiled by the soldiers who recovered corpses.
The Malvinas course united the Argentines in a patriotic atmosphere that protected the junta from critics, and even opponents of the military government supported Galtieri; Ernesto Sabato said: "Don't be mistaken, Europe; it is not a dictatorship who is fighting for the Malvinas, it is the whole Nation. Opponents of the military dictatorship, like me, are fighting to extirpate the last trace of colonialism." The Madres de Plaza de Mayo were even exposed to death threats from ordinary people.
HMS Invincible was repeatedly sunk in the Argentine press, and on 30 April 1982 the Argentine magazine Tal Cual showed UK's PM Thatcher with an eyepatch and the text: Pirate, witch and assassin. Guilty!
Three British reporters sent to Argentina to cover the war from the 'other side' were jailed until the end of the war.
United Kingdom
The Sun's "Gotcha" headline
Seventeen newspaper reporters, two photographers, two radio reporters and three television reporters with five technicians sailed with the Task Force to the war. The Newspaper Publishers' Association selected them from among 160 applicants, excluding foreign media. The hasty selection resulted in the inclusion of two journalists among the war reporters who were interested only in Queen Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew, who was serving in the conflict.
Merchant vessels had the civilian Inmarsat uplink, which enabled written telex and voice report transmissions via satellite. SS Canberra had a facsimile machine that was used to upload 202 pictures from the South Atlantic over the course of the war. The Royal Navy leased bandwidth on the US Defense Satellite Communications System for worldwide communications. Television demands a thousand times the data rate of telephone, but the Ministry of Defence was unsuccessful in convincing the US to allocate more bandwidth.
TV producers suspected that the enquiry was half-hearted; since the Vietnam War television pictures of casualties and traumatised soldiers were recognised as having negative propaganda value. However the technology only allowed uploading a single frame per 20 minutes – and only if the military satellites were allocated 100% to television transmissions. Videotapes were shipped to Ascension Island, where a broadband satellite uplink was available, resulting in TV coverage being delayed by three weeks.
The press was very dependent on the Royal Navy, and was censored on site. Many reporters in the UK knew more about the war than those with the Task Force.
The Royal Navy expected Fleet Street to conduct a Second World War-style positive news campaign but the majority of the British media, especially the BBC, reported the war in a neutral fashion. These reporters referred to "the British troops" and "the Argentinian troops" instead of "our lads" and the "Argies". The two main tabloid papers presented opposing viewpoints: The Daily Mirror was decidedly anti-war, whilst The Sun became well known for headlines such as "Stick It Up Your Junta!", which, along with the reporting in other tabloids, led to accusations of xenophobia and jingoism. The Sun was condemned for its "Gotcha" headline following the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano
Hola soy argentino, y si bien no vivia en ese entonces, veo la tapa de la revista Gente y me da mucha bronca por todo lo que hizo el gobierno militar, por todo lo que sucedió y las muertes que hubo :( Ojala todo sea para bien, o mejor dicho que termine de la mejor manera este conflicto que hay entre ambos países y que sea para bien.
ReplyDeleteHola de España, usted tiene un gran país, pero lamentablemente una vez más con un gobierno que busca la guerra por las Islas Malvinas. La gente de allí son un pueblo libre que desean seguir siendo parte del Reino Unido. CFK es un tonto al creer que el Reino Unido nunca renunciar a la soberanía. La Junta no sólo asesinó a su propio pueblo que se utilizan las Malvinas como una distracción frente a los problemas de la Argentina. CFK, que no puede haber sido responsable por el asesinato de sus ciudadanos, está haciendo exactamente lo mismo, utilizando las Malvinas como una distracción a la suya y el fracaso de su gobierno para gobernar un gran país. De hecho, hay constancia de que su marido y ella eran los únicos políticos argentinos que no dije nada acerca de la Junta y sus crímenes contra sus mil personas.
ReplyDeleteSi ha venido a la guerra otra vez, el resultado será el mismo, las víctimas sería mayor. El Reino Unido es una fuerza luchó endurecido, las fuerzas argentinas no lo son, y también es muy poco probable que la guerra se limita sólo a las islas. Como un veterano de ambos el intento en 1977 por las fuerzas argentinas de invadir las islas y también de la guerra de Malvinas 1982, una vez más, aunque en los cincuenta defender las islas como lo haría a todos mis compatriotas.
En el pueblo del Reino Unido y las Malvinas al pueblo elegir a quien los lleva, siempre tenemos, los argentinos no tienen. Es irónico que la mujer que lleva la Argentina está preparando a su hijo a seguir sus pasos. ¿Qué otra opción la libertad?