Like billionaire-controlled media, The Guardian misinforms its readers on the UK’s role in world

By Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 26 April 2021 Millions of its readers believe the Guardian offers critical, independent reporting that is different to the right-wing, billionaire-controlled UK media. But its limited coverage of British foreign and security policies gives a misleading picture of what the UK does in the world. The paper is in reality […]

Sky News acts largely as a platform for the UK defence and foreign ministries, research finds

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 1 February 2021 Declassified UK’s analysis of the written outputs of three of Sky News’ principal foreign affairs journalists has found that the media outlet acts largely to amplify the views of the British Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office, while rarely offering critical, independent analysis. A study by Declassified, […]

The Ministry of Defence blacklisted Declassified – but won’t admit it

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 11 December 2020 A UK government review into how the Ministry of Defence (MOD) handled relations with the organisation I edit, Declassified UK, concludes the MOD “did not have a policy” of blacklisting us, despite providing evidence that it did. It reveals a deep problem in UK governance – that […]

How the UK press supports the British military and intelligence establishment

by Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 11 March 2020 Britain’s national press is acting largely as a platform for the views of the UK military and intelligence establishment, new statistical research by Declassified UK shows.  The UK press, from The Times to The Guardian, is also routinely helping to demonise states identified by the British government as enemies, while tending to […]

How the UK press is misinforming the public about Britain’s role in the world

by Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 9 March 2020 Britain’s national press consistently portrays Britain as a supporter of noble objectives such as human rights and democracy. The extraordinary extent to which the public is being misinformed about the UK’s foreign and military policies is revealed in new statistical research by Declassified UK. The research suggests […]

How the UK Security Services neutralised the country’s leading liberal newspaper

By Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 11 September 2019 The Guardian, Britain’s leading liberal newspaper with a global reputation for independent and critical journalism, has been successfully targeted by security agencies to neutralise its adversarial reporting of the ‘security state’, according to newly released documents and evidence from former and current Guardian journalists. […]

Julian Assange should be thanked – not smeared – for Wikileaks’ service to journalism

by Mark Curtis Published in Middle East Eye, 21 October 2018 Twelve years ago this month, WikiLeaks began publishing government secrets that the world public might otherwise never have known. What it has revealed about state duplicity, human rights abuses and corruption goes beyond anything published in the world’s “mainstream” media. On 14 October Ecuador partly restored […]

UK General Election: What are the foreign policy implications?

by Mark Curtis Published in New Internationalist, 18 May 2017 The upcoming election has two key features. One is that voters have a genuine choice for the first time in a generation. But the other is that media disinformation backing current foreign policy and attacking Jeremy Corbyn is so great that the election cannot possibly […]

The mass production of ignorance: The media’s propaganda role

This is an edited extract from Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World by Mark Curtis   “The news is not a neutral and natural phenomenon; it is rather the manufactured production of ideology” (Glasgow University Media Group).   As several chapters in this book show, Britain’s mainstream media provide critical support for […]