History of Saint Helena - History of The Media in St Helena

History of The Media in St Helena

The St Helena Press was set up by Saul Soloman in 1806 and produced a number of publications including the Government Gazette (from 1807) and the St Helena Monthly Register (from 1809), both government funded publications. The press was taken over after the departure of governor Alexander Beatson (1808 – 1813), and was mainly used for government notices and regulations. The first of an occasional series St Helena Almanack and Annual Registers was published with the press in 1842 (the last and most comprehensive edition being published in 1913).

The St Helena Advocate and Weekly Journal of News, published in 1851, was the first island newspaper, but closed two years later mainly due to competition from the government-funded St Helena Chronicle (1852). This short publication period was a fate suffered by most island newspapers. The St Helena Herald was published from 1853 but ceased publication in 1860 when the editor launched a new paper, the St Helena Record. This closed in 1861 and was immediately replaced by the longest running paper, the St Helena Guardian (weekly, 1861–1925). The proprietor of the latter, Benjamin Grant, also published the St Helena Advertiser (1865–1866).

Two other newspapers published about this time, the St Helena Advertiser, the St Helena Star (1866–1867) and St Helena Spectator (1866–1868) both closed because of the lack of printing facilities. Two humorous papers, The Bug (1888) and the Mosquito (1888) were similarly short-lived. Several short-lived papers also appeared a few years later – the St Helena Times (1889), the Monthly Critic and Flashman (1895) and the St Helena Observer. De Krisgsgevangenewas, a censored Dutch newspaper, was published for Boer prisoners from 1901.

The St Helena Church News was published from 1888, the Parish Magazine from 1889, the Diocesan Magazine from 1901 and the Jamestown Monthly from 1912 The latter was renamed the St Helena Church Magazine and was published until 1945 by Canon Wallcot, who extended news coverage from church matters to also include island news after the closure of the St Helena Guardian. The government-funded St Helena Wirebird was published in the early 1960s, closing in 1965. The government-funded St Helena News Review and the St Helena News followed this. Between 1990 and 1991, the New Wirebird was published independently.

Radio St Helena started operations on Christmas Day 1967, transmissions being limited to the island apart from occasional short-wave broadcasts. The station presents news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Herald, published by the partially publicly funded St Helena News Media Services (SHNMS) since 2000. The non-government funded Saint FM Radio officially launched in January 2005. The station currently broadcasts news, features and music across the island, Ascension, the Falklands and worldwide over the internet in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Independent (published since November 2005). Both the Herald and Independent are can be read worldwide via the internet. Cable and Wireless currently rebroadcast television throughout the island via three DStv channels of entertainment.

In October 2008, the St Helena Government announced that island’s media must choose whether they obtained revenue from government subsidies or from advertising. They could not do both. On this basis, the partly publicly subsidised Media Services, which publish the St Helena Herald and broadcast on Radio St Helena, would no longer be allowed to run advertisements. Simultaneously, the St Helena Independent and Saint FM announced that they would need to increase advertising rates, which barely covered the cost of producing adverts.