British Censorship and Propaganda During WW2

by olitheoctopus (student)

By Oli Taylor 5th February 2012

History

Censorship and Propaganda

The Ministry of Information (MOI) was set up initially by the government in World War one and then reopened at the beginning of World War two. Its main purpose was to control censorship, the passing of information to the general public and propaganda, giving the public information to make them think or behave in a particular way. To do this the Ministry of Information employed thousands of people; to go through mail coming into Great Britain; to censor phone calls and monitor the information given in newspapers/BBC World Service.

Censorship was a large department within the Ministry of Information. All letters and phone calls were heavily monitored and any information that could help the enemy was removed before the letters were forwarded to the addressee. When all phone calls were monitored the censor had to read out a prepared statement before the phone call could begin. The statement said the following: ‘The enemy is recording your conversation and will compare it with previous information in his procession, great discretion is necessary and indiscretion will be reported by the censor to the highest authority’ This happened to the King and even the Prime Minister.

Almost everything was censored even films and books. Before a film was released at the cinema it would have to be viewed by a committee of censors before the public could see it. However, it would only be released if it encouraged a feeling of patriotism. Films like ‘The Lion has wings’ and Henry V were considered to achieve all this criteria.

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Newspapers offices would have a censor working with the journalists to make sure that any information being released to the public had been approved by the MOI and the government. Any form of media, e.g. BBC World Service, used a rule could the 14 day rule. This rule made it that any information being released to the public had to have happened at least 14 days before it could be published.

Propaganda, The MOI would also have teams of artists and journalists producing propaganda in the form of posters and comical news reels, as well as publications and films. These were used to encourage the public to not be scared about the war and have positive feeling about the conflict. Poster campaigns ranged from recruitment to information about what to do in situations like a black out or a gas attack. Many posters were made but were not released because they did not reach a censored standard set by the MOI.

One of the most famous poster campaigns was ‘Your Country Needs You’ featuring a poster of Lord Kitchener. This poster was used as a recruitment tool and was very effective as the image on the poster, from any where you looked at it from Lord Kitchener’ finger was pointing at you. Other famous posters included were ‘Careless talk cost lives’ ‘Plane spotting’, ‘Keep Mum and ‘Make do and Mend’ This was used to encourage people to repair and re use clothes they would have normally thrown away. This would save money and rations. Poster campaigns like ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ were printed, distributed but only had limited impact.

News reels were used as short films before and after the main feature in cinemas. They were designed to inform anybody what to do in certain situations. These were usually comical and would be very light hearted, yet have an underlining message that would raise moral amongst the public. The radio, which was the only mass media around at the time was used to ensure that the public were aware of information about the war. This was, as well as being a public entertainment platform, a highly censored and used as a means to put across ideas and propaganda.

In all the Ministry if Information played a huge role in keeping public morale to a high standard during the long years of the war, publishing enough information to inform yet keep Britain’s secrets from German eyes and ears.

This was a large success for Britain as propaganda kept British people positive so that they wouldn’t lose faith in the government.

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