Document:Aerial combat
article by David Miller dated 18 November 1994Subjects: The London Radio Service
Source: New Statesman and Society (Link)
==Response to the article from the Foreign Office==
By Steve Platt (Editor of the NSS), 25 November 1994
- The Foreign Office has Issued a statement contesting claims about British propaganda operations In the US made in David Miller's article last week ('Aerial Combat'), and in his book, Don't Mention the War, just published by Pluto. Miller reported how the Foreign Office-funded London Radio Service is in breach of US criminal law by falling to label its news bulletins, which are supplied free of charge to US radio stations, as emanating from the British government In response the Foreign Office has said:
- 'We refute strongly any suggestion that we are breaking US law or that the London Radio Service Is a 'semi-covert operation' No attempt is made to conceal the fact that this is a British government service. Indeed, British Information Services, New York, when offering the material to US radio stations, makes clear the service is provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office In London.'
- David Miller accepts that the service is 'acknowledged by the government', but insists that 'the defining feature of the IRS is its semi-covert nature'. 'Firstly,' he says, 'according to sources in the Central Office of Information, many radio stations are not aware that the service is a government operation. Secondly, Internal COI documents obtained by me state explicitly that: 'The distinguishing feature of COl radio as compared with other radio services is that material... Is broadcast by a station as if it were its own.
- The Foreign Office also claims that, 'British Information Services is not required to be registered under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act and thus is not required to submit its correspondence or information materials to the US authorities.'
- Which is rather odd, really, since Miller has copies of BIS materials containing the claim that BIS is 'registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the British government' and that its material is 'filed with the Department of justice where the required registration statement is available for public Inspection'.
- In fact, the Information Department of the Foreign Office, which directs the London Radio Service, Is only the latest incarnation of government 'grey propaganda' services to journalists. It produces a large volume of background and off the record briefing materials, some of which it has been forced to alter or withdraw. In 1988, for example, NSS reported on its document 'The Provisional IRA: International contacts outside the United States". This listed a string of organizations and Individuals as 'supporters' of the IRA. After parts of the briefing were reproduced verbatim but unacknowledged. In the Irish independent and the Daily telegraph, the Foreign Office was forced to remove Information about named individuals. Otherwise, its activities have continued unchallenged.
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Aerial combat: The London Radio Service is the Foreign Office's least known propaganda unit, supplying foreign stations with government 'fact' David Miller tunes in
- 'We're well away from propaganda to what I would call indirect propaganda'
If you dial 071-261 9342 today, or any other weekday, you can listen to the latest news items from the British government's least known propaganda unit. The London Radio Service (LRS) operates a 'storacall' facility from the offices of the Central Office of Information (COI) in London and from British Information Services in New York. This allows radio journalists to record the bulletins down the line for use in their own news programmes.
The service is a semi-covert operation that produces its own news reports, features and interviews, including 'zippy one-to one-and-a-half-minute reports with actuality', which it attempts to 'place' in radio news programmes around the world. The reports have no copyright restrictions and are supplied free of cost. Often the COI provides (at a nominal cost) the technical capacity to receive its products down phone lines.
News and features are posted to British embassies and consulates on tape or, more directly, by telephone or satellite. They are provided in a variety of languages and the service is expanded 'to reflect Foreign Office priorities'. For example, the South American service was established at the time of the Falklands war and the Caribbean service in the aftermath of the invasion of Grenada by the US in 1984.
The service is run under the political direction of the Information Department of the Foreign Office. This department was formed from the remnants of the Information Research Department (IRD) at the Foreign Office in the early 1980s.
The IRD, which was closed in 1977, was originally set up as a cold war propaganda unit in 1947 and had strong links with M16. The IRD and M16 set up a series of covert news agencies and radio operations in areas of postwar British intervention such as Suez, Palestine and Cyprus. The psychological warfare function of IRD, which also worked extensively in Northern Ireland, was officially stopped in 1977. However, the continued operation of the London Radio Service suggests that intelligence guidance still plays a part in overseas information policy.
Officially the Central Office of Information is supposed to provide a 'balanced' view of Britain in overseas publicity, yet the main interviewees on the LRS are the Prime Minister; three senior ministers and the Northern Ireland Secretary. It is clear that government ministers are featured overwhelmingly, and there are few if any interviews with critics of the British government, or even with members of British opposition parties. According to sources in the COI, the LRS has developed from an old-style Pathe News type of propaganda outfit to become much more sophisticated. One LRS journalist said: 'We're well away from propaganda to what I would call indirect propaganda. . . The whole point is that you can't take the old approach by saying there's the good guys and the bad guys and the bad guys have to be shown as pretty nasty, bayoneting babies... Now you have to be totally impartial, while still pushing the line.' The most important target is the US, where a potential market of 10,000 radio stations is available. The government has expended considerable effort and resources trying to manage the news in the US. One of its highest PR priorities has been and remains the conflict in Northern Ireland. This was evident in attempts to counter the publicity generated by Gerry Adams on his recent US tour, where the London Radio Service distributed news items featuring ministers trying to play down the significance of Adams' visit.
Many radio stations are, say COI sources, unaware that the LRS is a British government operation. Economics also inhibits radio stations from inquiring too closely about the origins of 'free' news. As one LRS journalist put it: 'Radio is the Cinderella of broadcasting. If its free they'll take it.' Most significantly, the COI tries to disguise the source of the news items that it places in radio bulletins. According to an official pamphlet outlining the service:
- 'The distinguishing feature of COI radio as compared with other radio services is that material.., is then broadcast by a station as if it were its own.'
However, under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act, all publicity and propaganda material emanating from a 'foreign principal' is required to be identified as such. All written or printed information distributed by British Information Services in New York features a standard form of words: 'This material is prepared, edited, issued or circulated by British Information Services . registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the British government.' Yet the products of the London Radio Service are not so identified, nor are copies lodged with the US Department of Justice as required. This constitutes a criminal offence under US law.
It is not clear whether the US government will act to require the Foreign Office to label the London Radio Service, or if penalties will be imposed. If this did happen, the irony would be that one of the last covert propaganda operations run by the FCO will have effectively been closed down by the actions of one of Britain's closest allies.
David Miller's 'Don't Mention the War: Northern Ireland, propaganda and the media' is now available, published by Pluto Press. He is lecturer in media studies at Stirling University
