How was information controlled in World War 2 in Britain?

Answer 1

1. A lot of information was simply not made available. 2. Other information was controlled by censors. The media (in those days the press, radio and film) were all subject to censorship. This didn't always take the form of a complete ban on publication. Sometimes newspapers were ordered to wait, for say six months, before publishing something. For example, some photos of bomb-damaged rows of houses in the poorest parts of London, taken from September 1940 onwards, revealed how flimsily built the houses were and also how vulnerable to bombing. Some of these photos were in fact published several months later. 3. Mail going to, and coming from, abroad was opened and information likely to be of use to the enemy was removed - using scissors. 4. If investigative journalists discovered military secrets they had to contact the censors before going any further. 5. Censorship was administered by the Ministry of Information, which was also responsible for disseminating official information, for producing (most) Propaganda and for spying on the British public to find out what they really thought about a wide range of subjects related to the war. In the earlier part of the war, when Alfred Duff Cooper was Minister of Information, some of this spying was amateurish and the informers were referred to as 'Coopers' Snoopers'. Later, when Brendan Bracken took over in July 1942 as Minister, all areas of the Ministry of Information's work became more efficient.