BBC chiefs bowed to pressure from our man in Moscow

Evidence of how far the BBC was willing to compromise its statutory obligation to unbiased news coverage emerges in the hounding of a woman broadcaster at the behest of the British ambassador to Moscow, detailed in the IRD papers which have been released at the Public Record Office.

The ambassador, Sir Maurice Peterson, complained to Christopher Warner, Assistant Secretary at the Foreign Office with responsibility for the information research department, of "a Communist-inspired talk" on the Home Service in February 1948, on Soviet housing, by Olga Watts. He wrote: "The talk [which was reprinted in the Listener] was so phoney that one wonders how the BBC allowed itself to be led up the garden path by her. The only thing that is true is that almost everybody in Moscow lives in a flat ... It is not much good our planning anti-Communist psychological warfare if we are going to let Communist-style drivel of this kind into the inmost fastness of the BBC."

Mr Warner wrote to Sir Ian Jacob, director of BBC External Services and later director-general, suggesting that in future "they should get their Russian experts to check the reliability of speakers on Russia before they are allowed to come on air, or take other effective steps to vet them and their scripts". Relaying this to Sir Maurice he urged: "The fact that I have written to Jacob should be kept confidential."

The BBC's response reflected the willingness with which the World Service collaborated on the IRD's anti-Communist strategy. GR Barnes, director of the spoken word, replied on behalf of Sir IanJacob: "We regret the fact that it was broadcast. The script was passed with the important proviso that the producer made clear that Mrs Watts was a privileged person in Moscow and was describing the life of a commissar. Jacob tells me that our Russian section got hold of Mrs Watts and cross-questioned her. They found her rather unintelligent and got very little that was useful from her."

Sir Ian agreed to go along with the IRD in channelling anti-Communist propaganda after having his doubts allayed by Mr Warner. The IRD had less success in listing the documentary film units. Its attempt to merge the work of the independents such as Movietone and Gaumont Pathe was doomed from the start.

On 2 October 1948, CF McLaren reported back to Mr Warner and Christopher Mayhew on the "lunatic air" of the meeting where he tried to persuade the documentary maker John Grierson working with the COI, to collaborate with the independents on anti-Soviet propaganda. He said the newsreel companies had now broken off relations with the COI.