This book by Robert savage has just appeared, and will interest many in this
group...
Patrick O'Sullivan
Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies, London Metropolitan University
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Northern Ireland, the BBC, and Censorship in Thatcher's Britain
Robert J. Savage
https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780192849748
.001.0001/oso-9780192849748
ABSTRACT
This book addresses the British broadcast media’s coverage of the conflict
in Northern Ireland throughout the 1980s, one of the most turbulent decades
in post-war British and Irish history. It explores the incessant wrangling
between the government of Margaret Thatcher and an aggressive broadcast
media determined to provide objective news and information about the
complexities of ‘the Troubles’ to regional, national, and international
audiences. The Thatcher government was determined to protect its interests
by shaping a narrative of the conflict in simplistic terms, presenting it as
a fight between the democratic forces of law and order and ruthless
terrorists hell-bent on carnage and chaos. Programming that questioned this
simple paradigm by challenging the decisions, policies, and tactics of
politicians, civil servants, and the army provoked outrage, angering
governments intent on influencing how the conflict was presented at home and
abroad. Senior officials employed a variety of tactics to try and shape a
complex narrative, including threatening journalists with prosecution under
the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act. The constant pressure exerted by
the government succeeded in encouraging self-censorship within both the BBC
and IBA. Nevertheless, BBC and independent television companies remained
determined to provide objective, cutting-edge reporting about the relentless
violence of ‘the Troubles’. This resulted in the imposition of formal
censorship in 1988. However, threatening, bullying, denouncing, and finally
censoring the broadcast media did not enable London to control the contested
narrative of ‘the Troubles’.
Keywords: terrorism, violence, war, propaganda, censorship, BBC, Margaret
Thatcher, Troubles, Sinn Féin/IRA, Loyalist
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Print publication date: 2022
See also
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/history/people/faculty-di
rectory/robert-j-savage.html
Patrick O'Sullivan
Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies, London Metropolitan University
[log in to unmask]
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