IT HAS been a vital voice for thousands of Falkland islanders, providing a reliable source of news for the scattered community for more than half a century.

But now the BBC World Service has decided to end its Falkland Islands service, whose twice-weekly bulletins were a rallying point for 2,400 islanders through invasion, capture and liberation.

Calling the Falklands, broadcast nightly during the 1982 Argentine invasion, is the latest victim of cutbacks as the World Service shifts its investment to a new Arabic television channel. The programme is made by two part-time staff and costs a few thousand pounds a year to produce.

News of the cut has outraged islanders and MPs, who say that the service provided a vital link for the community.

Norma Edwards, an islander who served for 20 years as a councillor from 1985, said: “It will be greatly missed. We may have television now, but still a lot of people tune in. During the conflict it was the mainstay of the people — it’s where everybody got their information from.”

Islanders, though, are unhappy that the decision to end the programme was taken without any public consultation, although the World Service has been in secret negotiations with the Falklands government over the change. One of the few who had been consulted in advance said: “I am really annoyed, however, at the fact that this is being presented as a fait-accompli and something that is actually ‘good news’.”

Calling the Falklands is a current affairs programme, transmitted on the World Service for 15 minutes on Tuesday and Friday evenings. It comprises three or four items of world news that are intended to be of interest to the isolated South Atlantic community.

The World Service will save only a few thousands pounds by cutting the programme. But a BBC spokesman said that the programme, which has been running since 1944, was “a bit of an anachronism. The islanders have their own broadband, radio and television. We would prefer to help them to build up their own media.”

Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative secretary of the all-party Falkland Islands group, said: “For the tiny amount of money saved, this decision will be interpreted in Buenos Aires as a sign that the British Government does not believe it is important to maintain links with the Falklands.”

Mr Rosindell said that he would be writing to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, asking him to attend a meeting of the all-party group, to explain the reasons for the decision.

The scattered community will now have to rely on the local Falkland Islands Radio Service for much of their news and information, although some homes have satellite television or access to British Forces programming, with its diet of football and soap operas.

The World Service has promised to continue supplying its general programming free of charge to the islands’ radio station. The BBC will also help to train staff and will provide 160 hours of annual programming for two years to “assist the transition to develop more original Falkland-based programming”.

Argentina does not broadcast a radio service into the Falklands, and it is unlikely that more than a tiny handful of locals would consider listening in.

Cutting the Falklands coverage comes a few months after the World Service announced a significant reorganisation under which it halted broadcasts in ten foreign languages, principally in Eastern Europe, as part of an effort to focus on markets where free local media are weak.

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