Webb, Alban and Haddon, Catherine
(2007).
'An Internal Housekeeping Matter': Whitehall and the BBC Monitoring Service.
Political Quarterly, 78(2),
pp. 214–223.
Abstract
For over 65 years the BBC Monitoring Service has been providing Whitehall and its diplomatic, intelligence and security communities with a rich seam of 'open-source' information mined from the word's media. However, while the continued importance of this work remains undisputed, in 2003 the future of the Monitoring Service was brought into serious doubt as a result of a proposed major reduction in its government funding. The source of this problem was a decade old dispute between sponsoring government departments over where the burden of responsibility lay for the costs of the service. The ensuing deadlock led the Intelligence and Security Co-ordinator, Sir David Omand, to commission a Review of BBC Monitoring by Sir Quentin Thomas whose recommendations formed the basis of a new funding and governance regime for the Monitoring Service. This is the story of that dispute and the means used to achieve its eventual resolution.
| Item Type: |
Journal Article
|
| ISSN: |
0032-3179 |
| Keywords: |
BBC Monitoring Service; Foreign Office; Ministry of Defence; Cabinet Office; BBC; open source; Whitehall; Foreign Broadcast Information Service; CIA; Thomas Review |
| Academic Unit/Department: |
Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
12023 |
| Depositing User: |
Alban Webb
|
| Date Deposited: |
13 Oct 2008 09:09 |
| Last Modified: |
02 Dec 2010 20:13 |
| URI: |
http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/12023 |
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