About the Wire

Svalbard's newspaper in English

Svalbard Wire reports the news of the archipelago in English and gathers what the world publishes about Svalbard in one place, checked and sourced. It has been published daily from Longyearbyen since 26 October 2026.

It is written first for the people who live in Svalbard and do not read Norwegian well, then for everyone else in Longyearbyen, Barentsburg and Ny-Ålesund, for those about to arrive, and for anyone following Svalbard from elsewhere.

Two desks make it. The local desk writes the news of Svalbard from the authorities, the institutions and the local press. The world desk finds what is published about Svalbard anywhere and groups it by subject. Everything either desk finds is kept in the Record; what they select and write is the News.

What it stands for

The facts belong to the sources. The Wire says what was said, who said it and when, and links to it so anyone can check. It adds no opinion of its own.

The Wire is written by software and edited by one person. Choosing what to run, how high to place it and which words to use is a judgment, and the Wire makes those judgments by rules that are written down: the same steps for every story and the same rules for every source. The rules are published, every change to a story is dated on the story, and a reader who thinks the Wire chose wrongly can write in and get an answer.

The software that writes the Wire has no friends in town, and nobody can ring it to have a story softened or dropped. The editor has the last word on what is published, and answers for it.

Nobody from the Wire was at the event. It has no reporter on the street and its software contacts no one. It reports what can be checked in a published source, and where the source leaves a question open, the Wire leaves it open too.

The past gets the same care as the present. The history pages are held to the same standard as the news.

How the Wire is written, checked and corrected is on Editorial standards. Every source it reads is listed on The sources.

The codes it follows

The Wire works under Norwegian law and the Norwegian press codes: Vær Varsom-plakaten (the code of press ethics), Redaktørplakaten (the editor's code) and Tekstreklameplakaten (the code that keeps advertising apart from editorial content). Where a Wire rule and a code differ, the stricter one applies.

The Wire is not a member of the Norwegian Editors' Association (Norsk Redaktørforening), so its cases do not go to the Press Complaints Commission (PFU). It handles complaints itself, built the same way: a written complaint to the editor, accepted up to six months after publication, is acknowledged within two working days and answered in writing within four weeks, naming the clauses considered. When a complaint is upheld, the story is corrected and the finding is published with it. Anyone criticised in a story may reply, within three working days of asking and up to 400 words, placed with the story.

Publisher and editor

Publisher

Rafael Garcia del Valle, a sole proprietorship (enkeltpersonforetak) registered in Norway. Owner, publisher and editor are the same person, and the Wire is paid for by its publisher.

Organisation number

936 731 546, in the Enhetsregisteret (the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities) at the Brønnøysund Register Centre. The business is not registered for value added tax.

Address

Vei 232-9, 9170 Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway. The Wire is written and edited in Longyearbyen.

Editor

Rafael García del Valle. The editor sets the rules the Wire works by, decides every story that is held for a decision and answers for everything published, as the Norwegian Media Liability Act (medieansvarsloven) asks of a publication with an editor.

Time

Times in the Wire are Svalbard time, which is Norwegian time: UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer. Each story shows the day its source published it.

Contact

editor@svalbardwire.com, or by post to the address above. Found a mistake? Write to the same address; Corrections says what happens next.

Follow

Svalbard Wire on Facebook: the day's stories as they are published. The week by email every Sunday: one email with the week's pages.