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Fake news in the UK
150/David Miller
DATELINE: 25/2/06
A succession of ‘fake news’ scandals in America has revealed a widespread pattern of funding public relations agencies who use actors to produce 'news' which is then broadcast as if it was genuine. The same practice has been adopted in Iraq, where newspapers have been paid to insert copy. These stories have raised eyebrows in the United Kingdom about the pitiful quality of US democracy. But there is plenty of fakery in the British news too.
British Satellite News (BSN) is a key example. It describes itself as “a free television news and features service”. Broadcasters can use BSN material “directly into daily news programmes and services”. Their website doesn’t say who funds or provides the service. But BSN is provided by World Television which makes internal videos and fake news releases for multinationals such as GlaxoSmithKline, BP and Nestlé. World Television also produced Towards Freedom Television on behalf of the British Government. This was a propaganda broadcast distributed in Iraq by US Army psychological operations teams.
According to World Television by November 2003, BSN propaganda material was being “used regularly by 14 of the 17 Middle-East countries”. Over 400 stations around the world receive BSN stories. 185 are regular users of the service, including broadcasters in Russia, Germany, Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Australia. The production of this fake news is funded entirely by the British Foreign Office.
The diet of 'news' received by viewers of the service includes an endless pageant of government ministers and other official spokespersons. Recent headlines on Iraq include:
Question time for Prime Minister (11 January 2006)
Iraqi ambassador talks of allied troop timetable (9 January 2006)
Prime Minister in surprise visit to Iraq, (22 December 2005),
The Psychology of terror — Experts meet, (23 December 2005)
Iraqi ambassador upbeat on elections, (14 December 2005)
UK voting for Iraq gets underway (13 December 2005)
UK police chiefs meet on terror issues (12 December 2005)
UK Foreign Affairs Committee on terrorism (9 December 2005)
Questioning the occupation is out of the question, but some criticism of US policy is possible. At the end of 2003 we were treated to an extraordinary apologia for the British occupation of Iraq in 1920. The “suggested intro” reads: “This year is not the first time an outside power has sought to construct a modern, democratic, liberal state in Iraq. Britain tried to do the same in the 1920s, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire”.
The benevolence of the US and the UK is simply assumed:
“Today's US-led coalition, like the imperial occupiers of eighty years ago, are trying to free Iraq's government and security services from corruption and abuse.”
But the clumsy strategy of the US is potentially “alienating a large section of the population”. So the question arises what “useful lessons could be drawn” from the British experience. In reality the 1920 British occupation led immediately to a popular revolt which was ruthlessly suppressed. A puppet monarchy was imposed, which was neither modern nor democratic but was, according to Mark Curtis, one of the least popular in Middle-Eastern history.
The BSN strategy seems to be to emphasise the UK’s cultural diversity. Bulletins regularly highlight ethnic minority contributions to Britain and interview leading moderate Muslims. But on some issues, such as Palestine, it is possible to hear muted criticism of Israel. One item featured “A leading Israeli academic who has questioned both the wisdom and the effectiveness of the controversial ‘separation fence’”.
A clue to the thinking behind this lies in a 2003 report for the Foreign Policy Centre which was co-authored by its then Director Mark Leonard. Leonard advised the Foreign Office on its post 9/11 Public Diplomacy Review in 2002 and was later appointed to the resulting Public Diplomacy Strategy Board which directs Foreign Office propaganda strategy. Leonard has no qualms about the deceptive nature of fake news. He wrote in 2002: “If a message will engender distrust simply because it is coming from a foreign government then the government should hide that fact as much as possible.” The Foreign Policy Centre report suggests the British government should not be afraid of “bloodying the Americans’ noses’' in its propaganda messages on Israel/Palestine. The aim is to “ensure that the differences between UK and American positions and thinking are emphasized”. The point is to tackle the perception that Britain “apishly follows every American lead” so the “usefulness” of “UK support for the US” is increased.
This strategy of providing left cover for America conforms to Blair's wider Iraq strategy. It is clear from documents leaked over the past year (including the Downing Street memo) the plan was to use the United Nations as a device for gaining legitimacy for the invasion. In other words, fake news is a key element of a strategy predicated on cynical deception.
Last modified: Saturday, February 25, 2006
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Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Journalism Ethics
Source's victory for Ackroyd
City Slickers trial
The Rise and Rise of the Censor
Product Placement
Children's rights v. press freedom - who wins?
Children's rights v. press freedom - who wins?
London Bombings: Missing Questions
Alter-EU launched
Marketing Labour
US threat to protection of sources
Protection of sources: 'A denial of justice'
Astroturfing
When errors hit the information superhighway
BBC puts its house in order (complaints-wise)
The Blame Game
Shock jailing of reporter in CIA-leak case
Faking It
The Guardian and the Lexus
Launch of The RAM Report
Aliens in the Media
Lies, Spies & Whistleblowers
Sunday Mirror pays out over slur
Check Calls
CBS Purge
Journalism & Public Trust
Regulating journalists... Whatever next?
