Administrator
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This is also taken from The Times:
Secret MI5 files on BBC staff ‘were shredded when Cold War ended’ by Alex Spence Media Editor Published at 12:01AM, August 12 2014
A secret BBC unit that vetted journalists for ties to communists ceased operating and shredded all its files in the early 1990s, according to a former employee of the division.
The official broke his silence to defend the clandestine programme, which scrutinised thousands of BBC employees and potential employees in co-operation with MI5.
Its existence was exposed by The Observer in 1985 after claims that journalists and film-makers had been wrongly denied jobs or promotions because of alleged ties to extreme left-wing groups.
Michael Hodder, a former Royal Marine who worked for the vetting unit in the 1980s, and later ran it, said that the vetting had already been scaled back by the time its existence was revealed. No one was blacklisted by the unit in the 17 years he worked at the BBC, he said. Mr Hodder added that the vetting, which operated from room 105 of the old Broadcasting House, ceased after the end of the Cold War in 1992. Mr Hodder supervised the destruction of all the confidential files it had secretly amassed on BBC journalists.
“I shredded the lot,” he said.
The BBC’s secret vetting operation has become a part of the corporation’s folklore. Its confidential personnel records became known as “Christmas tree files” because of a symbol that was stamped on the front of the folders that resembled a Christmas tree.
It began in 1937, initially to ensure that the BBC’s staff did not have ties to Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts, and continued during the Cold War to screen for communist sympathisers. At its peak, thousands of staff were referred through the unit to the security services for scrutiny.
When the unit’s existence was exposed by The Obsever, amid claims that individuals had been blacklisted without knowing why, the BBC was accused of compromising its journalistic independence by co-operating with the intelligence services.
According to an entry on the BBC’s website, the public outcry forced the BBC to admit that the “scope of the vetting had become too wide” and it pledged to scale it back. Since then, the BBC has said little in public about the matter.
Mr Hodder, who left the BBC in 1996, said he decided to speak publicly to clear up misconceptions about the programme after the death of Brigadier Ronnie Stonham last week.
Mr Stonham, a former Army intelligence officer, was the liaison to MI5 when the Observer article was published in 1985 and his career at the BBC was cut short by the controversy.
Mr Hodder said that Mr Stonham had been appointed by the Home Office in 1979 to reform the BBC’s vetting operation because it had grown out of control.
“[The articles] did not reflect what he was trying to do, which was to cut down on all the vetting,” Mr Hodder said. “He was disappointed that the story had been leaked when all he was trying to do was get the matter progressed and be less of an encumbrance for people at the BBC.”
Mr Hodder took over the unit when Mr Stonham retired in 1988 and ran it until it was disbanded in 1992, as it was deemed no longer necessary. The confidential personnel records in Room 105 were all destroyed by two staff members over several days.
Mr Hodder said that he and Mr Stonham had agreed not to talk about their work. “The only reason I’m speaking now is because I was rather upset at the way [Mr Stonham] has been portrayed.”
The BBC declined to comment.
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