Reuters, BBC, and Bellingcat participated in covert UK Foreign Office-funded programs to "weaken Russia," leaked docs reveal

http://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/
Date Written:  2021-02-21
Publisher:  Grayzone
Year Published:  2021
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX24241

New leaked documents show Reuters' and the BBC's involvement in covert UK FCO programs to effect "attitudinal change" and “weaken the Russian state's influence," alongside intel contractors and Bellingcat.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

leaked materials show the Thomson Reuters Foundation and BBC Media Action participating in a covert information warfare campaign aimed at countering Russia. Working through a shadowy department within the UK FCO known as the Counter Disinformation & Media Development (CDMD), the media organizations operated alongside a collection of intelligence contractors in a secret entity known simply as “the Consortium.”

Through training programs of Russian journalists overseen by Reuters, the British Foreign Office sought to produce an “attitudinal change in the participants,” promoting a "positive impact" on their "perception of the UK."

“These revelations show that when MPs were railing about Russia, British agents were using the BBC and Reuters to deploy precisely the same tactics that politicians and media commentators were accusing Russia of using,” Chris Williamson, a former UK Labour MP who attempted to apply public scrutiny to the CDMD’s covert activities and was stonewalled on national security grounds, told The Grayzone.