BBC

===Second World War===
[[File:George Orwell statue - BBC London (38562767202).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Statue of George Orwell]] outside [[Broadcasting House]], headquarters of the BBC]]
Television broadcasting was suspended from 1 September 1939 to 7 June 1946, during the [[Second World War]], and it was left to [[BBC Radio]] broadcasters such as Reginald Foort to keep the nation's spirits up. The BBC moved most of its radio operations out of London, initially to [[Bristol]], and then to [[Bedford]]. Concerts were broadcast from the [[Bedford Corn Exchange]]; the Trinity Chapel in [[St Paul's Church, Bedford]] was the studio for the daily service from 1941 to 1945, and, in the darkest days of the war in 1941, the [[Cosmo Gordon Lang|Archbishops of Canterbury]] and [[William Temple (bishop)|York]] came to St Paul's to broadcast to the UK and the world on the National Day of Prayer. BBC employees during the war included [[George Orwell]] who spent two years with the broadcaster.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/41a0eedb-c435-479d-aa63-a89ad81daf01|title=Orwell statue unveiled|date=7 November 2017|website=About the BBC|access-date=2 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171119183632/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/41a0eedb-c435-479d-aa63-a89ad81daf01|archive-date=19 November 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

During his role as prime minister during the war, Winston Churchill delivered 33 major wartime speeches by radio, all of which were carried by the BBC within the UK.<ref>Christopher H. Sterling (2004). "Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set". p. 524. Routledge</ref> On 18 June 1940, French general [[Charles de Gaulle]], in exile in London as the leader of the Free French, made a speech, broadcast by the BBC, urging the French people not to capitulate to the Nazis.<ref>{{cite news|title=How de Gaulle speech changed fate of France|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8747121.stm|agency=BBC|date=4 January 2018|access-date=4 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831091459/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8747121.stm|archive-date=31 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> In October 1940, Princesses [[Elizabeth II|Elizabeth]] and [[Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon|Margaret]] made their first radio broadcast for the BBC's ''[[Children's Hour]]'', addressing other children who had been evacuated from cities.<ref>{{Citation |title=Children's Hour: Princess Elizabeth |date=13 October 1940 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/childrens-hour--princess-elizabeth/z7wm92p |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127053143/https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/childrens-hour--princess-elizabeth/z7wm92p |work=BBC Archive |access-date=17 September 2022 |archive-date=27 November 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1938, John Reith and the [[British government]], specifically the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] which had been set up for WWII, designed a censorship apparatus for the inevitability of war.<ref name=":43">{{Cite book|title=The Echo of War|last=Nicholas|first=Sian|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0719046087|location=New York, New York|pages=18}}</ref> Due to the BBC's advancements in [[shortwave radio]] technology, the corporation could broadcast across the world during the Second World War.<ref name=":52">{{Cite book|title=Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American "neutrality" in World War II|last=Cull|first=Nicholas|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0195111507|location=New York, New York|pages=42}}</ref> Within Europe, the BBC European Service would gather intelligence and information regarding the current events of the war in English.<ref name=":43"/><ref name=":62">{{Cite book|title=BBC Broadcasts to Portugal in World War II|last=Ribeiro|first=Nelson|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]]|year=2011|isbn=9780773414877|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|pages=63}}</ref> Regional BBC workers, based on their regional geo-political climate, would then further censor the material their broadcasts would cover. Nothing was to be added outside the preordained news items.<ref name=":43"/><ref name=":62"/> For example, the BBC Polish Service was heavily censored due to fears of jeopardising relations with the [[Soviet Union]]. Controversial topics, i.e. the contested Polish and Soviet border, the deportation of Polish citizens, the arrests of [[Home Army|Polish Home Army]] members and the [[Katyn massacre]], were not included in Polish broadcasts.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morriss|first=Agnieszka|date=2015|title=The BBC Polish Service During the Second World War|journal=Special Issue Research Project Reports|volume=21|issue=4|pages=459–460|doi=10.1080/13688804.2015.1077108|doi-access=free}}</ref> American radio broadcasts were broadcast across Europe on BBC channels. This material also passed through the BBC's censorship office, which surveilled and edited American coverage of British affairs.<ref name=":52"/> By 1940, across all BBC broadcasts, music by composers from enemy nations was censored. In total, 99 German, 38 Austrian and 38 Italian composers were censored. The BBC argued that like the Italian or German languages, listeners would be irritated by the inclusion of enemy composers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mackay|first=Robert|date=Fall 2000|title=Being Beastly to the Germans: music, censorship and the BBC in World War II|journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television|volume=20|issue=4|pages=517|doi=10.1080/713669737|s2cid=192078695}}</ref> Any potential broadcasters said to have pacifist, communist or [[Fascism|fascist]] ideologies were not allowed on the BBC's airwaves.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Writing the Radio War|last=Whittington|first=Ian|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2018|isbn=9781474413596|location=Edinburgh, Scotland|pages=19}}</ref> In 1937, a [[MI5]] security officer was given a permanent office within the organisation. This officer would examine the files of potential political subversives and [["Christmas tree" files|mark the files of those deemed a security risk]] to the organisation, [[blacklisting]] them. This was often done on spurious grounds; even so, the practice would continue and expand during the years of the Cold War.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Leigh |first1=David |last2=Lashmar |first2=Paul |title=The Blacklist in Room 105. Revealed: How MI5 vets BBC staff |url=https://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.page9_obs_18aug1985.html |work=The Observer |date=18 August 1985 |page=9 |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=13 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513210628/http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.page9_obs_18aug1985.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hollingsworth">Mark Hollingsworth and Richard Norton-Taylor ''Blacklist: The Inside Story of Political Vetting'', London: Hogarth, 1988, p. 103. The relevant extract from the book is [http://bilderberg.org/mi5bbc.htm here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021004083825/http://bilderberg.org/mi5bbc.htm |date=4 October 2002 }}</ref>