BBC IN UPROAR OVER ISSUE OF SECURITY CHECKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807480002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807480002-6 STAT
ARTICLE APP Rc0
ON PAGE
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
20 August 1985
BBC in uproar
over issue of
security checks
Image of independence
marred by report in press
ft Dnid Winds
stir wfl c d The Chn@ en science MonUpr
Landon
Questions about the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation's ability to operate inde
pendent of government interference,
raised only a few weeks ago over the con-
tentious issue of Northern Ireland, have
surfaced again.
The latest row involves disclosure by
the Sunday Observer that Britain's secret
service, M15, has for years secretly
Britian faces flak on
M15's alleged role
screened BBC staff
appointments.
The newspaper
detailed eight cases
where individuals
were either denied
jobs or promotions
because of alleged
M15 objections to
their politics. In
each case the Ob-
server produced in-
formation to show
that these claims
were either inaccu-
rate or unfounded.
This storm threatens a new blackout of
BBC programs. Broadcast unions are
threatening strikes unless management
puts a stop to such security checks.
The allegations have outraged opposi-
tion politicians who are demanding an ex-
planation from Home Secretary Leon
Britton. Some of them see the screening of
BBC staffers as an insidious trend that
could infringe upon the independence of
other institutions. Other critics charge
that if the allegations are true then it ne-
gates the claim that the BBC is not an in-
strument of the government.
Earlier this month all BBC news pro-
grams went off the air as broadcasters I
struck to protest the board of governors'
cancellation of a documentary on North-
ern Ireland because it featured 'political
extremists. Most of the BBC staff and a
majority of the general public were op-
Posed to the board's intervention.
As with the Northern Ireland program,
the issue of national security also features
prominently in the defense of the apolo-
gists for M15 screening. Defenders of the
policy say that some form of screening is
needed to keep political extremists from
gaining access to such a sensitive commu-
nication outlet. Some of those who were
victims of the security, check are. outraged
at having been blacklisted in this way.
Isabel Hilton, for instance, a China
specialist, was barred from working for
the BBC in 1976 after M15 charged she
was working for a Maoist organization. It
was later discovered that MI5 had
thought that the academic, nonpolitical
Scottish-China Association, of which she
was secretary, was subversive.
Ms. Hilton, who now works with the
London's Sunday Times, was quoted as
saying that she is furious "some grubby
little secret policemen blackened my per-
sonal reputation, slandered me, and fi-
nally stopped me from getting the job,
without my ever knowing anything about
it and without my having the chance to
defend myself."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807480002-6