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About Declassified UK

Declassified UK is the leading website for in-depth analysis and exclusive news on British foreign policy, investigating the UK military, intelligence agencies and its most powerful corporations.

The UK’s traditional media is increasingly acting as part of the establishment and failing to report independently and critically on Britain’s real role in the world.

By contrast, Declassified UK is independent and produces public-service journalism that informs people about what is being done in their name, without fear or favour.

As well as focusing on current policies, we also uncover historical secrets, by investigating the declassified files in the National Archives in London. And our work is also read beyond the UK—in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States where UK foreign policy is often influential.

The task of uncovering Britain’s role in the world is vital given the UK’s global power:

  • An arms industry that is one of the world’s largest exporters of weapons
  • One of the world’s largest networks of overseas military bases, with barracks from Belize to Brunei
  • A booming cyber warfare industry and hub for private military firms
  • Permanent member of the UN security council and one of the world’s leading soft powers
  • Among the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world in the form of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ
  • Special forces currently operating in at least seven covert wars
  • An unparalleled archipelago of tax havens stretching across the Atlantic Ocean
  • Numerous powerful corporations in arms, extractives, mining, and finance

Our first articles revealed a secret British military unit commanded by Saudi Arabian soldiers, how the UK intelligence agencies neutralised the Guardian newspaper after the Snowden leaks, how the intelligence establishment is fortifying the repressive regime in Bahrain, and how the UK legal trial of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange is mired in conflicts of interest.

You can follow us on Twitter at @DeclassifiedUK

 

Why Declassified is needed

The “mainstream” UK media is not uncovering the reality of Britain’s role in the world and the public is being largely kept in the dark. This means that governments are not being held to account for their policies.

The problem is not just with the UK’s right-wing, billionaire-owned media but also with its more “liberal” outlets and the BBC, the most popular source of news for the British public.

The British media are less and less mainstream – and are if anything becoming even more embedded in the establishment, regularly amplifying extremist policies that support war, human rights abusers and corporations contributing to catastrophic climate change.

The government publishes key information on its policies virtually every day which is often very revealing. But only a tiny proportion of this is ever covered in the establishment media. Those journalists choose not to cover it, or else don’t care. We do.

However, much remains hidden. Britain’s culture of secrecy is deeply embedded in Whitehall. This means that numerous government policies are hidden from the same public who should be able to hold a government to account in a democracy. These hidden policies often need to be exposed, and the secret state challenged.

 

Why are we publishing with the Daily Maverick?

Declassified is hosting its articles on the website of the Daily Maverick, a leading independent news site, begun in South Africa but increasingly global. It has a strong track record in exposing corruption and breaking major political stories such as the Gupta Leaks.

Declassified’s staff have written articles for most of Britain’s national media, but the space for independent analysis and critical investigations is ever declining. Perhaps this is not surprising. Britain ranked bottom for press freedom in Western Europe in 2019 and scored lower internationally than South Africa and Australia.

When the Daily Maverick offered to host our stories, we saw it as an ideal opportunity to team up with one of the best investigative and independent news sites in the Global South.

Declassified Media Ltd is a not-for-profit UK registered company.

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