Seldom seen News Agencies

This blog in general was inspired by weekly adventures on the fantastic free online news agency Mercopress, a relatively comprehensive and quite well done dissimulator of news about parts of the world otherwise, our London centric media here in the UK tend to ignore.

Based in Uruguay it is possibly one of the most balanced news agencies I have come across, and has thoroughly well researched news articles about the happenings within the Mercosur countries, with occasional pieces about the US and Europe.

Of particular note are the articles it spools out daily in relation to the nuttier goings on of Argentina's irredenta, normally one does not get to hear about Argentina's side of the coin other than what they want the world to hear when the politicians mobilize the masses in indignant nationalist outrage and much gnashing of teeth, but rather we get to see various different pressure groups and the political aspect of this dispute from the Argentine perspective, a perspective which has been sorely ignored by most major media outlets in the UK save for the occasional BBC story.

But more commendable is that unlike Argentine news outlets it refers to the Falklands as a separate entity and not a province of that country or even a colony of the UK like many British media outlets mistakenly diagnose the country as, it offers to both English speaking and Latin American readers alike a more human every day life side to the Falkland islanders and political goings on in the Islands, aspects which rarely creep up in the media in the UK whose attention only focuses on the islands when their kind lovely neighbors get overly excited. A truly remarkable find and one which I think any person wishing to know more about this dispute should look into.

But as well as this it offers a compelling incite into the inner workings of certain Malvinist cyber warriors, some good some bad and far too many are clearly insane but more on them at a later date.

For a more Falklands centric outlook people should refer to the Penguin News Agency a wholly Falklands based media outlet, that deals primarily with local life on the islands, again an aspect ignored by mainstream British and Argentine news outlets, sadly however you have to register to view said stories due in no part to enthusiastic Malvinist cyber warriors, again it is wholly well balanced and tries to steer clear of the nastiness that characterizes this dispute and instead offers the reader a very normal insight into the lives of these remarkable people in the Falklands, a truly welcome and much needed source of information.

A final news agency seldom seen is the South Atlantic Remote Territories Media Association (SARTMA), focusing on the various happenings in the British Atlantic territories, it try’s to cover what the BBC and others tend to ignore the community and happenings of Britain's often forgotten other nations and to steer the focus away from the controversial happenings over the Falklands to other fascinating British peoples such as St Helena, Tristan Da Cunha, Ascension island and South Georgia.

I only hope that in time many people in the UK will stumble across these seldom seen new agencies and will gauge a better understanding and knowledge that there are other nations out there beyond the UK who are staunchly proud and wish for nothing more than to be accepted for choosing their free wish to remain British.

The news groups in question can be found at:

http://en.mercopress.com/about-mercopress
http://www.penguin-news.com/
http://www.sartma.com/