The Media and the Secret State

harry haller wrote the following post Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:07:08 +0100

“Unlike France, where secret service has always remained a less than respectable activity, consigned to the fringes of government, in post-war Britain it was at the very centre.” Paul Todd and Jonathan Bloch in their detailed analysis of global intelligence conclude that “Britain remains the most secretive state in the Western hemisphere.” (...) Significantly, from the 1980s onwards, a raft of legislation has both reinforced the secret state’s growing powers and protected it from probing media.

The 1989 Security Services Act (actually drafted by MI5 lawyers) placed the service on a statutory basis for the first time and provided it with legal powers to tap phones, bug and burgle houses and intercept mail.

The UK Press Gazette commented (6 September 1993): “The greatest invasion of privacy is carried out every day by the security services, with no control, no democratic authorisation and the most horrifying consequences for people’s employment and lives. By comparison with them the press is a poodle.”

The 1989 Official Secrets Act (OSA) replaced the 1911 OSA, which had proved notoriously cumbersome, particularly after civil servant Sarah Tisdall was jailed in 1983 for leaking to the Guardian government plans for the timing of the arrival of cruise missiles in England.

Then followed the acquittal of top civil servant Clive Ponting charged under Section 2 (1) of the OSA after he leaked information showing the government had misled the House of Commons over the sinking of the Argentinean ship, the Belgrano, during the Falklands conflict of 1982.

The 1989 Act covered five main areas: law enforcement, information supplied in confidence by foreign governments, international relations, defence,and security and intelligence.

The publishing of Ponting-style leaks on any of these subjects was banned. Journalists were also denied a public interest defence.

Nor could they claim in defence that no harm had resulted to national security through their disclosures.

The Intelligence Services Act of 1993 created the Intelligence and Security Committee which meets in secret to overview services’ activities, reporting to the prime minister and not parliament. Following the 1996 Security Service Act, MI5’s functions were extended to “act in support of the prevention and detection of crime.”

The incoming Labour government then moved to extend the powers allowing the intelligence services and other government agencies to conduct covert surveillance.

THE MEDIA AND THE SECRET STATE | Richard Keeble - Academia.edu — https://www.academia.edu/10766319/THE_MEDIA_AND_THE_SECRET_STATE

25 page excerpt from a book. #uk #gb #assange #press #media #mi5 #mi6 #secretservices #academiaedu #richardkeeble

#britain #england #anglo-saxons #intelligence #spying #deepstate total #censorship #1984 #hisotry #humanrights is #Western fake

“Unlike France, where secret service has always remained a less than respectable activity, consigned to the fringes of government, in post-war Britain it was at the very centre.” Paul Todd and Jonathan Bloch in their detailed analysis of global intelligence conclude that “Britain remains the most secretive state in the Western hemisphere.”
(...)
Significantly, from the 1980s onwards, a raft of legislation has both reinforced the secret state’s growing powers and protected it from probing media.

The 1989 Security Services Act (actually drafted by MI5 lawyers) placed the service on a statutory basis for the first time and provided it with legal powers to tap phones, bug and burgle houses and intercept mail.

The UK Press Gazette commented (6 September 1993): “The greatest invasion of privacy is carried out every day by the security services, with no control, no democratic authorisation and the most horrifying consequences for people’s employment and lives. By comparison with them the press is a poodle.”

The 1989 Official Secrets Act (OSA) replaced the 1911 OSA, which had proved notoriously cumbersome, particularly after civil servant Sarah Tisdall was jailed in 1983 for leaking to the Guardian government plans for the timing of the arrival of cruise missiles in England.

Then followed the acquittal of top civil servant Clive Ponting charged under Section 2 (1) of the OSA after he leaked information showing the government had misled the House of Commons over the sinking of the Argentinean ship, the Belgrano, during the Falklands conflict of 1982.

The 1989 Act covered five main areas: law enforcement, information supplied in confidence by foreign governments, international relations, defence,and security and intelligence.

The publishing of Ponting-style leaks on any of these subjects was banned. Journalists were also denied a public interest defence.

Nor could they claim in defence that no harm had resulted to national security through their disclosures.

The Intelligence Services Act of 1993 created the Intelligence and Security Committee which meets in secret to overview services’ activities, reporting to the prime minister and not parliament. Following the 1996 Security Service Act, MI5’s functions were extended to “act in support of the prevention and detection of crime.”

The incoming Labour government then moved to extend the powers allowing the intelligence services and other government agencies to conduct covert surveillance.

THE MEDIA AND THE SECRET STATE | Richard Keeble - Academia.edu — https://www.academia.edu/10766319/THE_MEDIA_AND_THE_SECRET_STATE

25 page excerpt from a book.
#uk #gb
#assange #press #media
#mi5 #mi6 #secretservices
#academiaedu #richardkeeble

The Rise And Fall Of The Bulgarian Connection
by Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead
PDFs [anamnesis.info] [archive.org]
This book is a compelling expose of the plot behind the plot-the
concoction by the Italian secret services of a Bulgarian Connection in
the attempted assassination of the Pope.
The reader of this book is faced with staggering proof that the media
utterly failed to meet acceptable standards of care and professionalism.
The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection is a serious and realistic
assessment of the handling by the western press of a propaganda trick; it
shows how the press was led by a handful of journalists linked to the
CIA into accepting as proof a fabricated story .
In following this case, lawyers were disheartened by the erosion of
the principle of the presumption of innocence. And just as the legal sys
tem failed to probe the case against the accused Bulgarians in accor
dance with that presumption, so the media ignored information suggest
ing hidden political motives behind the accusations.
The book is a chilling indictment of our so-called " free" press, a
press which abuses its freedom by omissions , by half-truths, and by stir
ring the continuation of a Cold WM climate. It deserves to be read and
remembered.
Sean MacBride, s.c.

Sean MacBride is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (1974), the Lenin
Peace Prize (1977), and the American Medal of Justice (1978); former Chief of
Staff of the Irish Republican Army, Foreign Minister of Ireland, and United Na
tions Ambassador; U.N. Commissioner for Namibia; and author of the UN
ESCO Report on The New World Information and Communication Order; cur
rent Chairman of the Board of Advisers of the Institute for Media Analysis, Inc.
#book #media #journalism
#propaganda #secretservices #state
#bulgariaconnection #jeanpaul2
#edwardsherman #frankbrodhead #SeanMacBride