The BBC World Service from wartime propaganda to public diplomacy: the case of Iran

Sreberny, Annabelle; Torfeh, Massoumeh

Abstract

Over the summer of 2011 a compelling TV drama called The Hour was aired on BBC2. Focusing on BBC TV news at the time of the 1956 Suez crisis, it showed Foreign Offi ce (FO) offi cials concerned that Russian secret agents might be working inside the BBC and, more signifi cantly, wanting the BBC to present the rationale for a war with Egypt. The journalists, however, wanted to tell a more complex story, including anti-war demonstrations. In a sense, this plot can be seen as the domestic BBC learning what the BBC World Service had always known: that the relationship with the FO (since 1968 the Foreign and Commonwealth Offi ce [FCO]) was diffi cult and had to be constantly renegotiated.

Citation

Sreberny, A., & Torfeh, M. (2013). The BBC World Service from wartime propaganda to public diplomacy: the case of Iran. In M. Gillespie, & A. Webb (Eds.), Diasporas and Diplomacy: Cosmopolitan contact zones at the BBC World Service (1932-2012) (121-139). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203125151-15

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Mar 13, 2013
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 121-139
• Series Title: CRESC
• Book Title: Diasporas and Diplomacy: Cosmopolitan contact zones at the BBC World Service (1932-2012)
• ISBN: 9780415508803
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203125151-15
• Keywords: BBC World Service, Persian Service, Iran, Propaganda, history