The The Balearic Government has been carrying out a series of investigations into the activity of the Mallorcan radio station Sputnik Radio after receiving a request from Europe to check that no ties to Russia, its power centers or public media. Brussels is opening investigations in all sectors of the EU economy to trace possible relations with the country led by Putin and its oligarchs in the face of the invasion of Ukraine. Some investigations that would be related to the battery of sanctions that are being launched as a punishment measure against Russia for the war.
As this newspaper has learned, there have been some calls to verify data about the Palma station and a follow-up of the contents has been made. This newspaper, after learning of the existence of this European order from sources close to the Executive, contacted the director of Sputnik Radio, Marito Verdaguer, to confirm it. “It is true that they have called us from the Government to inform us of this investigation that they have had to carry out at the request of Europe,” explains the person in charge. In response to questions from this medium, Verdaguer commented that the Executive had contacted the Alfàbia Broadcasting Center to find out if there was a contract with the station “and they saw that everything was correct”. There was also another communication with It is Gremi (Polígono Son Castelló), where the studios are located, for the same.
From the station, which will be eight years old in 2022, they have taken this story with a lot of humor and as an anecdote. “We are an independent radio station where we talk about music and broadcast cultural programs,” argues Marito about a radio project that is well known in the cultural and musical circles of Ciutat and that started at the Casa Planas cultural center. “Sputnik Radio was created for the union of Majorcan artists”summary on their Facebook page.
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The director of this communication medium also comments that surely They will change the name of the station that comes out with the 105.4 dial so that when it is tuned in, ‘Sputnik’ does not appear. “From the Government they have recommended us to change the name more than anything to avoid more problems in the future, because Europe is going to toughen investigations of this type. Right now we do not know what name we are going to put on the dial and I do not know if we will change name to the whole project for this”, he points out. “It’s something we’re going to study.” The Majorcan radio website, from where all programs can be seen and heard, will remain the same for the time being and with the same name and domain: www.sputnikportal.com.
It is evident that the name of the Majorcan radio station is the one that has alerted the European authorities, which have already officially banned operators from broadcasting content from Russia Today and Sputnik. The latter is a Russian government news agency, news website, and broadcasting service, which was created by the Russian state agency Rossiya Segodnya in 2014. Sputnik is frequently regarded as Russian propaganda outlet, involved in the disinformation. Sputnik operates various news websites in 31 languages, including Spanish. The pages store more than 800 hours of daily radio broadcasts, while its broadcasting service broadcasts 24 hours a day.