Mike Nolan

Mike Nolan is 'a former deputy head of Sky News and former senior foreign editor at ITN' and was the editor of British Satellite News, a Foreign Office funded propaganda outlet in 2006. In 2009 he took up a position as 'Production director' at CTN (also known as Corporate Television Networks).

Screen grab of part of page at: Linked In Mike Nolan, accessed 24 February 2010.

Education

Nolan attended the University of Melbourne between 1967 and 1970.

ITN

While at ITN in 1992 Nolan accompanied two injured ITN reportes back from Sarajevo:

A SERBIAN surgeon escaped from Sarajevo to Britain yesterday with two injured ITN newsmen whose wounds he had treated. Dr Milomir Ninkovic arrived at Heathrow airport from Zagreb on a private plane chartered by ITN to bring home its cameramen Nigel Thomson and Jim Dutton... Yesterday Mike Nolan, ITN's senior foreign editor, who arrived at Heathrow with the men, would not give details about their escape. He said there was nothing illegal in bringing the doctor into Britain. Dr Ninkovic would only stay the weekend and then travel to Innsbruck to meet up with his family and take up a new surgeon's post.

BSN

Nolan was appointed to BSN in May 2001.

Propaganda?

Responding to criticism of the BSN operation in the Guardian,David Miller, its editor Mike Nolan made the following points. These are contrasted with extracts from the contract between BSN and the Foriegn Office released under the Freedom of Information Act:

Nolan:

We report on genuine news developments, whether they are of political importance or about the latest British fashion designer's creation. Who makes the call on that? I do. As a former deputy head of Sky News and former senior foreign editor at ITN, I have a pretty good idea of what news is. The BSN output is not a "propaganda strategy". I wouldn't be involved in it if I thought that.

BSN contract:

'The objectives of the service are:

(a) to publicise explain and win understanding for government policies

(b) project a UK view of topical and world events'

Nolan:

The BSN service does exactly what it is paid to do, and that is to give overseas broadcasters not only more information about government policies but also about news developments within Britain's multicultural, multi-ethnic society.'

BSN Contract:

'The contractor shall promptly comply with all instructions of the Authority's representative'[The FCO]

Nolan:

We produce more than 90% of our own material. We are not "a PR company" - we are a stand-alone organisation. We do not put out an "endless pageant of government ministers"; we put ministerial statements out when they are newsworthy.

BSN Contract:

The production unit will need to work closely with the Islamic Media Team/Public Diplomacy Group... and establish relations with other Government press offices and agencies to remain informed of Government policy... The senior journalist/editor in chief will be expected to attend a weekly editorial meeting with the Authority [FCO]. there will be daily telephone briefings and a weekly editorial meeting. regular strategy and policy meetings will take place... during which the FCO will be informed of how the editorial content of BSN broadcasts could be tailored.

Also:

News items should regularly include, inter alia:

(a) Government policy announcements and press conferences including where possible statements by Ministers

(b) Items drawing on current topics and events as supplied by Public Diplomacy Group'

Finally, the key to the 'fakeness' of the news is that it is then broadcast without acknowledgement that it is a British government funded or inspired service. the contract states: 'The BSN service is to be provided directly to broadcasters... to be incorporated into their own programmes without attribution'

In 2007 Bruce Whitehead, a former employee of BSN criticised the operation. He wrote that

Returning to London, I wrote my report, including what I had been able to glean from the exchanges at the Saudi parliament. The report was doctored by the editor, Mike Nolan, to remove the Saudi government's views on democracy and women's rights.

We now know, what I did not know then, that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles is the man who warned the UK government that the Saudis would end security co-operation if the police investigation into allegations of £60 million worth of hospitality for the Saudis in connection with British Aerospace's "Al Yamamah" arms deal went ahead. The inquiry of course was duly dropped.

For me as a journalist the Foreign Office's editorial influence at BSN was making it more and more difficult to do my job. I reported remarks by Dennis McNamara, the UN's highly respected adviser on displacement, denouncing the west for flooding Africa with arms. Mike Nolan called me in for a little chat. Did I realise who our client was? Why did I persist in writing critical reports?

I tried to argue that our job was not to report professionally, so that the clients - in my view overseas broadcasters, and not the FCO - would trust us. Mike Nolan told me the UN adviser's words were "too close to the bone" and they were removed from my report. I no longer work at BSN, but its biased and flawed material is being used by hundreds of TV stations in the Middle East and Asia. All this is funded by the Foreign and Diplomatic Service, courtesy of the British taxpayer, to the tune of some £3 million per year.

Another tale that ran into trouble was when I reported perfectly friendly remarks by Tony Blair about Islam, the war on terror and other contentious issues, made on the record to a world audience. Even these were removed by BSN on FCO orders. If the Foreign Office can censor its own Prime Minister to feed distorted news to the Arab world, how can Britain be trusted there?

Responding to this article Mike Nolan said:

Unlike Bruce, I have no intention of breaking my confidentiality on what went on between the two of us. I completely refute his version of events. It is wrong to suggest I doctor scripts. Bruce was certainly not alone in having his material subbed. When material was reduced I nearly always took the time to explain why. Bruce’s claim he ran into trouble when he reported friendly remarks made by PM Blair about Islam is untrue. I am not censored by the Foreign Office; I did not censor Bruce. BSN prides itself on providing accurate and balanced information on news and developments in the UK.

Resources

• Terms of Service agreement between World Television and the Foreign Office to provide British Satellite News. Released under the Freedom of Information Act

• David Miller, The British Government's global fake news network, Spinwatch, 15 February 2006

• David Miller The propaganda we pass off as news around the world A British government-funded fake TV news service allows mild criticism of the US - all the better to support it, The Guardian, Wednesday February 15, 2006.

• Mike Nolan Response: We do not spout propaganda - we report news Yes, we are a government funded broadcaster, but that does not influence our journalism,The Guardian Friday February 24, 2006.