“The BBC will remain our secret weapon in furthering British policies.” – Baron Selwyn-Lloyd
Last week I described how the BBC could not be described as an independent broadcaster, given its role in serving the interests of the British government.
I’d like to review some episodes of its murky history and debunk its myth of media objectivity and impartiality to show that, for the BBC, politics has always trumped media ethics – being the arm of the British State.
The British Broadcasting Corporation was first established in 1922 and was initially operating as an English radio station.
Ten years later, British officials realised that this new media outlet could play an instrumental role in serving the British Empire “on which the sun never sets”, holding sway over dominions and colonies all over the world.
Thus, the BBC world service was launched in 1932 and has since evolved and expanded, broadcasting now in 27 different languages.
The funds allocated to the BBC Arabic service are nearly equal to those spent on the BBC English service, which is followed by a massive 150 million listeners and viewers in Britain and abroad.
Although we don’t have accurate statistics on the exact number of viewers and listeners, or the allocated budget, the BBC Arabic service certainly receives a massive amount of money.
The BBC has established itself as a key pillar of the British State, as it promotes its policies and designs and defends its vital interests – debunking the myth of objectivity and neutrality it has long cultivated.
In August 1953, the British were already plotting to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Dr Mohammad Mosaddegh by any means necessary.
Dr Mosaddegh was then at the peak of his popularity, feted as a hero who engineered the nationalistion of the country’s oil industry.
He sought first to renegotiate and reach a fair restitution of rights for his country before taking the radical step of nationalising the oil industry and disbanding the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which plundered his country’s assets for more than a quarter of a century.
The British Embassy in Tehran started plotting to oust Dr Mosaddegh, relying on their Iranian civilian and military agents.
Among the collaborators who sold their souls to join the coup, which was plotted in London, were two tycoon brothers – the sons of Habibullah Rashidian.
As zero hour was approaching, the Rashidians hesitated out of fear and told the British Embassy they wanted clear assurances that Britain would side with the collaborators and protect them, whatever happened.
London moved swiftly to allay their fears and a British intelligence officer asked the Rashidian brothers how those assurances should be made, since they could not put anything in writing.
The Rashidians asked for the assurances to be made through the BBC.
When asked how, they responded that the BBC in its broadcasts would usually say: “This is London. It is midnight.” They asked for this to be changed to: “This is London. It’s 12 past midnight.”
Of course, the secret code was engineered and aired through the BBC’s Persian service.
The BBC played a crucial role and was fully involved in setting the scene for the coup to overthrow Dr Mosaddegh, serving as the propaganda wing of the British government in Iran.
On August 18, 1953, the plot to stage a coup and overthrow the government of Dr Mosaddegh was launched.
In the early hours of August 19, 1953, the Rashidian brothers brought foreign intelligence-paid mobsters, which included hooligans, dupes, criminals, pimps and prostitutes, who took to the streets calling for the fall of Dr Mosaddegh.
The paid mobsters, who marched on Dr Mosaddegh’s residence, took to the streets of Tehran wreaking havoc on the city in ruthless acts of sabotage.
At the same time, Iranian military officers involved in the coup d’etat ordered tanks to join the move to overthrow Dr Mosaddegh.
These historic facts are cited in gruesome detail in the book Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty, an account of historical events in Iran and the inside story of the Shah’s regime, by General Hussein Fardoost, the Shah’s schoolmate who headed Iran’s military intelligence until 1976 – three years before the Khomeini revolution.
On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company, the joint British-French enterprise which owned and operated the Suez Canal after its construction in 1869.
That bold announcement, which angered colonialist powers Britain and France, was the culmination of months of mounting political tensions between Egypt, Britain and France and anti-Nasser propaganda.
British and French politicians did not accept the new geopolitical status quo resulting from that crucial decision and started preparations for a war, known as the Suez Crisis or Tripartite Aggression, against Egypt and its people to regain control of the strategic waterway.
Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, who was then Foreign Secretary in the government of Prime Minister Anthony Eden, wrote in his memoirs: “After making the necessary air and naval preparations and deploying carriers to hit Egypt, I told the military leaders: ‘There is a third hidden weapon which we will use against Egypt. It is the BBC.’”
The task of the BBC was to ensure pro-war media coverage and discredit the image of Egypt and Nasser.
While British newspapers, like the Daily Express, were engaged in a character-assassination, infamously nicknaming Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser “The Nile’s Hitler”, the BBC was playing its own role in tarnishing the image of Egypt and disseminating fabrications and false news, serving as a tool of war propaganda. All this is cited in the memoirs of Baron Selwyn-Lloyd.
The BBC also played its role as an arm of the British State in 1982 when the UK went to war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands.
The BBC exercised a total media blackout on the war, raising the ire of the outraged British Press which wondered how the BBC could agree to become part of the British government’s propaganda machine.
These three episodes are examples that expose the hidden agenda and undeclared mission of the BBC, which continues to profess total media objectivity and neutrality.
BBC news continues to broadcast, round the clock, politically-tainted and biased programmes to shape opinions and orchestrate media campaigns against Arab governments.
It airs criticism that exceeds the limits of decency and is intent on creating confusion, sowing doubt and fostering indifference and despair in a bid to further alienate Arab youth from their countries and leaders.
The BBC does host people who defend their countries and advocate their just cause, but only timidly, so as to deceive and throw dust in the eyes of viewers.
In fact, those who devote themselves to defending their homeland are outnumbered by those who seek to destroy their countries and damage their vital national interests.
BBC listeners and viewers must notice how programme anchors and presenters interrupt moderate speakers who are there to debunk allegations, reveal truths, defend their countries and advocate their causes to the discomfort of their hosts, who seek to manipulate the debate.
So why raise this issue now? Simply as a mere eye opener for our youth, hoping they will not fall under the spell of the BBC, which gives the impression that it exercises a freedom we don’t have.
This is not true at all, as the evil desire for destruction contradicts true freedom.
These are artificial and false freedoms, which aim to export destructive trends and mantras to wreak havoc on our countries.
But let’s suppose these are genuine liberties, why does the BBC not concentrate on internal British ills such as poverty, rampant criminality, crowded prisons, a shrinking middle class and the homeless who find no shelter from scorching summers or freezing winters?
Why doesn’t the BBC shed light on those British patients who wait desperately for simple surgeries due to the shortage of beds and lack of means in their poor health services?
It was also announced recently that Britain was in dire need of four million housing units.
Yet despite the staggering number of entrenched ills and crude facts, the BBC does not consider such pressing issues to be part of its media responsibility.
However, at the height of the so-called and now defunct Arab Spring, the BBC tried hard to incite the overthrow of Arab regimes and spark mayhem in many Arab countries.
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