Secret Home Office Propaganda Unit attack 5Pillars is an Assault on Press Freedom
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London - CAGE International rejects the politicised and Islamophobic targeting of 5Pillars, a Muslim led independent journalism platform, following leaked Home Office documents in which its secretive propaganda unit, Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), categorised the news organisation as being of “Islamist Extremist Concern”.
The leaks draw attention to the clandestine operations of RICU, a unit engaged in producing state-sponsored propaganda to manufacture public consent for the government’s draconian counter-terrorism policies.
The listing of 5Pillars in documentation suggests that a decade from the CAGE exposé of the inner workings of RICU, it still continues to operate with impunity, targeting Muslim groups and generating propaganda to silence voices that challenge authoritarian state over reach.
It again exposes the structural and systemic Islamophobia of the state and how counter-terrorism policies are engineered primarily to target and vilify Muslim communities, and this instance, Muslim media.
5Pillars have consistently challenged state narratives and thus their mention is an acknowledgement of their effectiveness.
If reporting discrimination, raising uncomfortable and challenging questions, scrutinising double standards and covering politically contentious events are grounds for suspicion, then the implications for press freedom are profound.
Had this been any other media outlet, there would have been by now public uproar about the assault on press freedom by a state propaganda unit.
CAGE’s concerns about RICU are longstanding. Our reports, Blacklisted: The Secretive Home Office Unit Silencing Voices of Dissent and We are Completely Independent: The Home Office, Breakthrough Media and the PREVENT Counter Narrative Industry, exposed the opaque workings of government counter-extremism units and the use of publicly funded propaganda initiatives to engineer the thoughts of citizens, as well as the influence of far right organisations in the process of designating individuals as ‘extremists’.
Anas Mustapha, Head of Public Advocacy at CAGE International, said:
“RICU operates secretively and without accountability for the harm its propaganda causes. Its attempts to covertly shape Muslim public discourse betrays how the state systematically discriminates against Muslims. Its targeting of 5Pillars is not simply an attack on one outlet; but an attack on press freedoms and a veiled threat to anyone that challenges the state’s preferred narratives.”
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This report provides a unique insight, for the first time, of opaque units that work as part of the government’s counterterrorism policies, the Extremism Analysis Unit (EAU) and the Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU). These two units, in particular, assist the government in its PREVENT strategy, by conducting research and coordinating propaganda.
The report also exposes the influence of far right organisations, such as the Henry Jackson Society, in the secretive process of designating individuals as ‘extremists’.
The information in this report is primarily based on two sources, witness statements given by the heads of EAU and RICU in the case of Dr Salman Butt v Secretary of State for the Home Department.
We are Completely Independent: The Home Office, Breakthrough Media and the PREVENT Counter Narrative Industry
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CAGE’s report “We are Completely Independent” reveals:
- How the Home Office has misled the British public, pushing state-sponsored propaganda at or about Muslims using seemingly independent groups and projects which include:◦ Anti-Tribalism Movement: Somalia: time to go home and Return to Somalia
- ◦ Armed Forces Muslim Association: Faith on the Frontline
- ◦ Don’t go to Syria, only give to registered charities: Syria Needs Your Help and Change the Picture
- ◦ Families Against Stress and Trauma: Families Matter
- ◦ Upstanding Neighbourhoods: KIKIT Pathwayz and Open Your Eyes: ISIS Lies
- ◦ Quilliam Foundation: #NotAnotherBrother
- ◦ Federation of Muslim Organisations: Ummah Sonic
- ◦ Faith Associates: Imams Online
- The government’s use of the Official Secrets Act to protect a PR company, Breakthrough Media, and conceal its role in producing state-sponsored propaganda
The report also explores in-depth:
- Breakthrough Media, the PR company at the heart of the government’s PREVENT propaganda programme directed at Muslim communities
- The role of the secretive propaganda unit, Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), within the Home Office in directing the conversation within the Muslim community while it claims otherwise.
- Clear evidence of specific instances where Muslim organisations including charities have been controlled and manipulated by the Home Office to convey a state-scripted narrative on ‘extremism’ and ‘radicalisation’.
Over the past five years, the Home Office and a secretive government department called RICU, the Research, Information and Communications Unit, has been cultivating a network of ‘grass roots’ Muslim voices to promote ‘counter-narratives’ to combat the appeal of ‘extremist narratives’ among Britain’s young people. All of this is taking place with no public debate or oversight.
Working with top PR agencies and new media companies to target young people who fit the profile of ‘vulnerable young Muslim’, RICU’s interventions represent the first concerted foray into cyberspace by the British state with the aim of covertly engineering the thoughts of its citizens. In practice this means the chosen ‘grass roots’ organisations and ‘counter-narratives’ receive financial and technical support from the government for the production of their multimedia campaigns (videos, websites, podcasts, blogs etc.).
These state-sponsored ‘counter narratives’ have in turn been promoted to specific groups of internet users, chosen on the basis of their demographics, the websites they visit, the social media accounts they ‘follow’, and the search terms they use.
Note:
The use of information from Persephone Rizvi’s LinkedIn profile in this report in no way indicates her knowledge of the connections between UmmahSonic, Breakthrough Media and the Home Office.
Many of those working for such companies or projects like UmmahSonic are unaware of funding streams or links to the counter-terrorism establishment, which is why it is more important than ever to have transparency and accountability for any project that presents itself as being connected to the grassroots.
