Government and the media
By the summer of 1940 the British government had an effective system of news management in place. At the apex was the Ministry of Information under Churchill's old friend, Alfred Duff Cooper. The MOI had responsibility for censoring news, but it found the most effective means was to control the source, issuing communiqués to newspapers, which editors could then interpret in their own ways.
Thus the MOI encouraged the appearance of diversity, when the media was actually under a very tight reign. The BBC presented more of a problem. Churchill and Duff Cooper both wanted to exert more control, but the corporation managed to maintain a surprising degree of independence.
Published: 2004-02-06
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