Mark Urban

Mark Urban       (soldier, academic, journalist, author, presenter)
Born	Marylebone, London, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Rokeby School, King's College School, London School of Economics

Mark Urban is a UK Establishment-friendly journalist, author, academic and was the diplomatic and defence editor for BBC Two's Newsnight at the time of the Skripal Affair.

Activities

“Mark Urban’s piece for Newsnight tonight was simply disgusting; it did not even pretend to be more than a propaganda piece on behalf of the security services, who had told Urban (as he said) that Yulia Skripal's phone “could have been” tapped by the Russians and they “might even” have listened to her conversations through the microphone in her telephone. That was the “new evidence” that the Russians were behind everything. As a former British Ambassador I can tell you with certainty that indeed the Russians might have tapped Yulia, but GCHQ most definitely would have. It is, after all, their job, and billions of our taxes go into it. If tapping of phones is seriously presented as evidence of intent to murder, the British government must be very murderous indeed.”
Craig Murray (5 July 2018) 

Books

To be released on October 4, 2018 "The Skripal Files: The Life and Near Death of a Russian Spy" is, according to the blurb, "the explosive story of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the new spy war between the West and Russia. The Skripal Files is based on hours of exclusive interviews Skripal gave before his near-death with number one bestseller Mark Urban, diplomatic and defence editor for BBC Newsnight."

FOIA request to the BBC

On 8 July 2018, this Freedom of Information request was made to the BBC:

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

1: Why did BBC Newsnight correspondent Mark Urban keep secret from the licence payers that he had been having meetings with Sergei Skripal only last summer.

2: When did the BBC know this?

3: Please provide me with copies of all correspondence between yourselves and Mark Urban on the subject of Sergei Skripal.

Yours faithfully,

Kirsty Eccles

Acknowledgment

Dear Kirsty,

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as detailed in your email below. Your request was received on 8th July 2018. We will deal with your request as promptly as possible, and at the latest within 20 working days. If you have any queries about your request, please contact us at the address below.

The reference number for your request is RFI20181319.

Kind regards,

Information Rights

BBC Freedom of Information BC2 A4, Broadcast Centre 201 Wood Lane London W12 7TP

BBC's dismissive reply

Dear Ms Eccles,

Freedom of Information request – RFI20181319

Thank you for your request to the BBC of 8th July 2018, seeking the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

1: Why did BBC Newsnight correspondent Mark Urban keep secret from the licence payers that he had been having meetings with Sergei Skripal only last summer.

2: When did the BBC know this?

3: Please provide me with copies of al correspondence between yourselves and Mark Urban on the subject of Sergei Skripal.

The information you have requested is excluded from the Act because it is held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature.’ The BBC is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you. Part VI of Schedule 1 to FOIA provides that information held by the BBC and the other public service broadcasters is only covered by the Act if it is held for ‘purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature”. The BBC is not required to supply information held for the purposes of creating the BBC’s output or information that supports and is closely associated with these creative activities.

You may not be aware that one of the main policy drivers behind the limited application of the Act to public service broadcasters was to protect freedom of expression and the rights of the media under Article 10 European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”). The BBC, as a media organisation, is under a duty to impart information and ideas on all matters of public interest and the importance of this function has been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights. Maintaining our editorial independence is a crucial factor in enabling the media to fulfil this function.

For more information about how the Act applies to the BBC please see the enclosure which follows this letter. Please note that this guidance is not intended to be a comprehensive legal interpretation of how the Act applies to the BBC. That said, the BBC makes a huge range of information available about our programmes and content on bbc.co.uk. We also proactively publish information covered by the Act on our publication scheme and regularly handle requests for information under the Act.

Appeal Rights

The BBC does not offer an internal review when the information requested is not covered by the Act. If you disagree with our decision you can appeal to the Information Commissioner. Contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or telephone 01625 545 700 (http://www.ico.org.uk).

Please note that should the Information Commissioner’s Office decide that the Act does cover this information, exemptions under the Act might then apply.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights

BBC Freedom of Information

 

A Document by Mark Urban

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Sergei Skripal - "I wanted a life outside Russia"	Article	28 September 2018	Sergei Skripal Skripal Affair	Adapted from "The Skripal Files, The Life and Near Death of a Russian Spy" by Mark Urban, to be published by Macmillan on 4 October 2018 at £20

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
OffGuardian	“The BBC’s new drama “The Salisbury Poisonings” concluded over the weekend. A three-part story “based on actual events”, claiming to tell the story of the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018. It’s exactly what you’d expect. Schlocky tat. Poorly researched, badly written and woefully factually inaccurate. The Guardian gave it four stars. Because of course they did. Because when you’re dealing with government-backed narrative everything that reinforces it must be described as having value. It’s one of the hallmarks of propaganda, that no story which supports the propaganda – however ridiculous – can ever be questioned, criticised or disputed. There’s room for an in-depth review, and indeed Craig Murray has done a fine job deconstructing the series. But here, I just want to focus on everything they don’t tell you.”	OffGuardian	19 June 2020

 

Related Documents

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Document:Narrative Managers In Overdrive After Death Of White Helmets Founder	blog post	12 November 2019	Caitlin Johnstone	There is an immense narrative management campaign dedicated to controlling what people think about what’s happening in Syria. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Official Narrative control comes before any other priority the empire might have: before resources, before land, before even war itself. It’s up to us to see through their lies and bring an end to the lie factory.
Document:Northern Ireland Information Service - Misinformation	Book	1994	David Miller	It is now well established (and has been admitted by the government), that the task of the Information Policy branch of Army headquarters in the early to mid 1970s was disinformation. False stories were spread in order to discredit the IRA as well as other enemies of the Intelligence services, such as Loyalist politicians and the Labour government.
Document:Novichok Part Deux: A Fusion of Media, Government & Military	Article	10 July 2018	Kenny Coyle	BBC diplomatic and defence correspondent Mark Urban revealed this week that he had in fact been meeting secretly with Sergei Skripal over a year ago.
Document:Sputnik Gatecrashes Launch of Mark Urban's Book 'The Skripal Files'	Article	5 October 2018	Kit Klarenberg Johanna Ross	Sputnik Gatecrashes Launch of Mark Urban's Book 'The Skripal Files'

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