Wikileaks: Brazen UK domestic "Media Operations" policy leaked

[Joanne98]

Exposed: Policy document reveals that MoD "Media Operations" are primarily designed to manipulate UK population and politics.

JULIAN ASSANGE (Investigative Editor)
October 10, 2008

The 49 page document Joint Doctrine Publication 3-45.1, dated September 2007 and promulgated by the Chiefs of Staff describes itself as "the key document" for "Media Operations".

UK military Media Operations have as their "principal target audience" the entire "UK population", especially "politicians... newspaper columnists... and journalists". The military doctrine, which states that it is not to be circulated outside the MoD, was accidentally exposed on the MoD website and subsequently released by Wikileaks.

The policy states that "At the strategic level the UK population is usually considered the principal target". Yet among the "overlapping sub-sets across the spectrum of UK society", the "most influential target" is "the limited group of people who hold disproportionate influence on the direction of government and public thinking and policy development". This group includes "politicians and statesmen, members of ‘think-tanks’ and professional bodies, special political advisers, newspaper columnists, academics, analysts and journalists (who are increasingly voicing opinions on current affairs issues)".

Additional extracts:

"Public support from the UK audience enhances a commander’s freedom of action, making him less vulnerable to external interference and overly restrictive Rules of Engagement (ROE).

Information that is likely to require comment or response by a Government Minister will require ministerial approval before release, e.g. significant collateral damage, multiple UK casualties and incidents of military fratricide.

<...>

Critical to this is the maintenance of political and popular support for HMG’s strategic objectives and any military activity in support of it. The MOD, working with other government Departments (OGDs), achieves this through the Information Strategy (Info Strategy), a dynamic and coordinated matrix of themes and messages targeted at specific audiences, using all communications channels.

<...>

National Broadcast Media. For the purposes of this publication, the broadcast media is divided into television and radio:

Television. In the UK television remains the main platform for news consumption. Digitised technology has radically altered TV newsgathering (known as Electronic News-Gathering (ENG)). An individual journalist can broadcast, via satellite, direct from a JOA, with no dependency on the military communication infrastructure. Beyond this, news documentaries and dramas make a significant impact on the longer term perception of the military and their actions in the minds of the wider public. In order to gain a lead in the eternal competition for ratings, increasingly TV news is as much about comment and entertainment as it is about comprehensive reporting. Satellite TV News channels are gaining increasing importance among the audiences in non-Western countries where the appetite for news in relentless. The acceptance of presented television pictures can give TV journalists news excessive power to influence both public and political opinion.
National Print Media. Unlike broadcast media in the UK, the print media are not obliged by law to be unbiased. All national print media have agendas, including a political stance. For the purposes of this publication, the print media is divided into national broadsheet and tabloid (red top). Research has shown that in the print media, there is a marked contrast between the readership and writers of the tabloids as opposed to the broadsheets.

“People will buy a newspaper that will make them feel safe in their own opinions”,
and that the more ‘intellectual’ papers, , merely

“inform readers who had already established their own opinion on matters”.
Tabloid journalists often appear to be more subjective in their articles. In broad terms therefore:

a. Broadsheet Newspapers. In the UK, the broadsheet press is less widely read than the tabloids but are more likely to influence principal decision-makers and opinion formers. For this reason, their content will include considerable commentary as well as factual news reporting. b. Tabloid Newspapers. The tabloid press is widely read by a significant majority of the UK population. Dramatic headlines and short, pithy pieces are more likely to affect wider perceptions than the longer, considered pieces in the broadsheets.
<...>

UK Regional Media. Regional media is an excellent means of making connections between the wider population and individual Service personnel. The effect on the local population of a ‘home town story’, whether in local print, radio or TV, concerning the single member of a unit deployed on operations whose parents live locally cannot be underestimated. On occasions, these stories can have more impact on a local community than the national coverage of a distant war being fought for complex reasons."

See
UK MoD Joint Publication 3-45.1: Media Operations, Sep 2007
Retrieved from "https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Brazen_UK_domestic_%22Media_Operations%22_policy_leaked"

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Brazen_UK_domestic_%22Media_Operations%22_policy_leaked

[dipsydoodle]

1. The disinformation concerning the occupation of Iraq

has by and large turned the Brtiish public against believing what they are expected to believe. In other words they got it wrong.

“People will buy a newspaper that will make them feel safe in their own opinions”, is a complete load of old bollocks.
Over here it's been a simple fact of life that for at least 30 years people have bought newspapers not for news but for incidental articles and features in them.

[KharmaTrain]

2. I'll Bet This Tactic Is As Old As Paper...

It's called "Public Relations". The military doesn't live in a vacuum and needs to present a positive image to the public. In our case, and in better times, the military put more money into advertising and PR than they did into recruiting. We get these messages in commercials produced and paid for by the military...and they also run a very large and wide reaching outreach to the media.

While it sounds Orwellian, it's better to have these people out front...even with their propaganda, than in a "secret location"...not communicating at all.