Britain Secretly Funded Reuters In ’60s & ’70s, Used BBC As Front For Payments

Riyaz Patel

Britain’s government secretly funded Reuters in the ’60s and ’70s as part of an anti-Soviet propaganda unit linked to British intelligence, and used the BBC to launder the payments, declassified government documents show.

The money was used to expand Reuters’ coverage of the Middle East and Latin America and was hidden by increased news subscription payments to Reuters from the BBC.

As the BBC reported Monday, the Information Research Department (IRD), an intelligence section created within the Foreign Office in 1948 to covertly produced anti-communist material, led negotiations with Reuters in 1969. 

“We are now in a position to conclude an agreement providing discreet Government support for Reuter services in the Middle East and Latin America,” noted a redacted 1969 British government document marked “Secret” and entitled “Funding of Reuters by HMG.“

“HMG’s interests should be well served by the new arrangement,” said the document, which was