The Foreign Office's Information Research Department (IRD) was set up under the Labour Government in 1948 and clandestinely financed from the Secret Intelligence Service budget. A large organisation with close links to MI6 ( with whom it shared many personnel) it waged a vigorous covert propaganda campaign against Eastern Bloc Communism for nearly thirty years using journalists, politicians, academics and trade unionists - none of whom were 'unwitting'. Such famous names as George Orwell, Denis Healey, Stephen Spender, Bertrand Russell and Guy Burgess helped or backed the work of IRD. Parliament, had it known of the true purpose of IRD's existence, may well have rejected an anti-Communist propaganda offensive, but it was simply not informed. Because IRD was funded through the Secret Vote (by which Parliament votes funds for MI5 and MI6 without scrutiny) it was completely unable to exercise any scrutiny over IRD operations. Using a vast array of techniques to influence world and domestic opinion IRD's activities mirrored and complemented similar CIA covert propaganda operations. Its operations extended across the world and took in newspapers, magazines, news agencies, book publishing, academia and radio stations. IRD also influenced the BBC's and Reuters' output of news stories. Using the "old boy network," IRD placed its people in many parts of the British media and academic world. On the home front IRD was deeply involved in British politics, notably through the dissemination of material by contacts in the Labour Party and the TUC where it sought to bolster anti-Communists against those identified as Communists and, in effect those less enthusiastic for the Cold War, the Atlantic Alliance and nuclear deterrence. Internationally it conducted operations in the Middle and Far East and in the Commonwealth together with specific campaigns in Greece, Malaya, against Nasser during the Suez Crisis and Suharto in Indonesia. Britain's Secret Propaganda War is the first book to be written about IRD and represents an important chapter in the history of the Cold War. The narrative is driven by actual accounts of IRD covert operations and includes a number of "exclusives" that will help with publicity for the book. Paul Lashmar and James Oliver (the authors) have a significant private archive of IRD material and files collected by researchers over twenty years. They have interviewed a substantial number of those who took part, some of whom have since died. The authors also reveal some of the journalists who moved effortlessly between MI6, IRD and national newspapers, like Chevins of the Daily Telegraph. They have also uncovered evidence of IRD's hidden hand in domestic British politics, overthrowing left-wing governments and assisting Britain's entry into the Common Market. In their conclusion the authors discuss the impact of IRD, both domestically and internationally, and raise significant questions about the morality of covert propaganda in a democracy.

Britain's Secret Propaganda War

History

LASHMAR, Paul

Oliver, James

Europe

Sutton Pub Ltd

Spy Flights of the Cold War

This volume aims to present the full story of the Cold War's secret, the war in which hundreds of combatants lost their lives. Long before Gary Powers' U2 spyplane was shot down over the USSR in 1960; an undeclared war was being fought in the stratosphere. Investigative journalist Paul Lashmar has uncovered evidence of secret missions flown by US Air Force and Royal Air Force crews. He has interviewed USAF and RAF participants, and the Red Air Force pilots that tried, sometimes successfully, to shoot them down. He has also discovered details of a 1950s USAF plan to use these spy flights to provoke a nuclear World War III that would have wiped the Soviet Union and China from the face of the earth. Evidence from the former Soviet Union reveals the extent of political tension created by the spyplane war. From 1950, over 40 western aircraft were shot down and hundreds of air force officers died or remain missing. This book documents the hunt for these Cold War MIAs.

Military

Online Journalism: The Essential Guide

"An essential guide for anyone hungry to learn how journalism should be practised today, and will be tomorrow. Hill and Lashmar encapsulate the transformative impact technology is having on journalism, but anchor those changes in the basic principles of reporting." - Paul Lewis, The Guardian "As the news business transforms, Online Journalism is a fantastic new resource for both students and lecturers. Informative, straightforward and easily digested, it’s a one-stop shop for the skills, knowledge, principles and mindset required for journalistic success in the digital age." - Mary Braid, Kingston University Online and social media have become indispensible tools for journalists, but you still have to know how to find and tell a great story. To be a journalist today, you must have not only the practical skills to work with new technologies, but also the understanding of how and why journalism has changed. Combining theory and practice, Online Journalism: The Essential Guide will take you through the classic skills of investigating, writing and reporting as you master the new environments of mobile, on-demand, social, participatory and entrepreneurial journalism. You will also develop must-have skills in app development for smartphones and tablets, as well as techniques in podcast, blog and news website production. What this book does for you: <ul>
<li>Tips and advice from leading industry experts in their own words </li> <li>QR codes throughout the book to take you straight to multimedia links </li> <li>A fully up-to-date companion website loaded with teaching resources, detailed careers advice and industry insights</li> <li>Exercises to help you hone your skills</li> <li>Top five guided reading list for each topic, so you can take it further</li> </ul> Perfect for students throughout a journalism course, this is your essential guide!

Computers & Technology

Hill, Steve

Computer Science

Sage Publications Ltd.

Spies, Spin and the Fourth Estate: British Intelligence and the Media

Combining his expertise as a national security correspondent and research academic, Paul Lashmar reveals how and why the media became more critical in its reporting of the Secret State. He explores a series of major case studies including Snowden, WikiLeaks, Spycatcher, rendition and torture, and MI5's vetting of the BBC - most of which he reported on as they happened. He discusses the issues that news coverage raises for democracy and gives you a deeper understanding of how intelligence and the media function, interact and fit into structures of power and knowledge.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Edinburgh University Press

The author reveals the secret spyplane war which took place in the skies over Soviet Russia during the Cold War.

Science & Math

Technology

Naval_Institute_Press

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Books by LASHMAR, Paul