THE SOVIET KGB AND THE PRESS
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570029-4
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
2
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
January 12, 2011
Sequence Number:
29
Case Number:
Publication Date:
October 26, 1985
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
![]() | 141.8 KB |
Body:
3
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570029-4
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE //
EDITOR & PLELISHER
26 October 1985
The Soviet KGB and the press
Voice of America staffer says the Soviet KGB may have hundreds
of recruited agents who plant articles in the world's free press
By M.L. Stein
The Soviet KGB may have hun-
dreds of recruited agents among for-
eign journalists, including some in the
U.S., "ready at any time to place pre-
pared stories in their national media,"
a Voice of America staff member told
a California conference recently.
Any Soviet official, scholar or jour-
nalist abroad may plant propaganda,
even if he is not a KGB member, said
Lisa Jameson, senior editorial writer
for VOA. "This is especially true in
the United States, where the Soviets
seem to have a fertile field for im-
plantation. "
Jameson, who emphasized that her
views are not necessarily those of
VOA or the United States Informa-
tion Agency, delivered her remarks at
a Hoover Institution conference on
Public Diplomacy on the Stanford
University campus Oct. 3-4.
She disclosed that much of her in-
formation on the planting of material
by Soviet agents emerged in her inter-
views with two Russian defectors,
who had posed as journalists while
working for the KGB.
She identified them as Stanislav
Levchenko, a "disinformation spe-
cialist," who defected in 1979 while
serving undercover as a Nvoye
Vremya (New Times) correspondent
-7D in Tokyo, and Ilya Dzhirkvelov, who
at one time was chie`ff edifor of TASS'
final editing desk. But, according to
Jameson, he worked under journalis-
tic cover in both the First and Second
Chief Directorates of the KGB.
Jameson said that, according to
Dzhirkvelov, the majority of Soviet
media placements are not achieved
through officially recruited or co-
opted sources.
"Dzhirkvelov, himself as a KGB
operative posing as a journalist, sim-
ply offered information to Western
counterparts, making no secret of the
fact that he knew it would be re-
norted," Jameson explained.
The Russian, she continued, would
approach a foreign correspondent,
saying, "I am a Soviet journalist and
The Russian, she
continued, would
approach a foreign
correspondent, saying, `I
am a Soviet journalist
and no one will believe
me if I write this story.
But if you write it, it will
be believed."
no one will believe me if I write this
story. But if you write it, it will be
believed."
"Often, Jameson stated, this was
enough to pass along what the KGB
referred to as 'rumors' that would
whet the appetites of foreign journal-
ists. Occasionally, foreign contacts
would accept payment - not
agreeing to any long-standing rela-
tionship but simply a one-time deal."
The VOA writer quoted Dzhirk-
velov as remarking: "Foreign jour-
nalists seemed to have few ideological
convictions. They seemed more in-
terested in money."
In a telephone interview with E&P
from Washington, D.C.. Jameson
was asked if the KGB had used any
American journalists or media to
plant propaganda or disinformation.
"I can't give you hard evidence, I
don't know," she replied. "The KGB
has many, many sources in the foreign
press - cooperating contacts."
Jameson said neither of her defec-
tor informants had worked in the
United States, but "both of them
assumed there are people within the
media in the United States and other
countries who can be counted on to
place articles in the press."
The VOA staffer added that, in her
personal opinion, "there would tend
to be fewer (Soviet media contacts) in
the United States."
in the interview, Jameson cited a
specific case in which the KGB
planted a smear against an individual
in a "major German periodical" after
learning that the editor of the maga-
zine had a "pathological hatred"
against that person.
The Soviets, she said, passed up the
smear through a kind of "daisy
chain" of people to the editor, who
did not bother to check the source of
the material.
In her Stanford speech, Jameson
claimed that "well-intentioned-
American journalists cite TASS dis-
patches, Moscow press conferences.
"or even articles in Soviet journals for
stories they file as objective news re-
ports. "
She added that a "community of tv,
radio and newspaper personalities
has produced a mediacracy," which
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570029-4
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570029-4
"exerts a powerful influence on pub-
lic opinion, and thereby on the poli-'
cies of the U.S. government."
The Soviets, she said, "are well
aware of the seminal role of the Amer-
ican media and during the past five
years they have exploited their acces-
sibility to the hilt."
Jameson also asserted that the
Soviet internal media have adopted a
new policy of quoting the western
press to support their propaganda
efforts.
"In decades past," she said,
"soviet internal media seldom quoted
the non-socialist foreign press. To-
day, this is commonplace. Pravda
regularly cites Western newspapers,
especially prominent U.S. dailies
such as the Washington Post and the
New York Times when their negative
commentary on American actions or
socio-economic conditions serve to
buttress positions taken by the
USSR, or when they have quoted cri-
tics of American policy."
An example, she went on, was
when Pravda cited a Washington Post
story as confirmation of the Soviet
contention that Korean Airlines
Flight 007 was on a spy mission when
it was shot down by the Russians.
"The Post article was quoted out of
context, and, of course, Pravda did
not bother to include material from
Western periodicals that refuted
Soviet claims," Jameson remarked.
Still, she pointed out, such tactics
serve Soviet propaganda well since
the Soviet reader is often so jaded by
a lifetime of propaganda that he may
tend to believe the opposite of what he
is told in official organs. . . . Skillful
use of material from the Western
press, even distorted, out-of-context
or one-sided, can provide a certain
patina of credibility to otherwise dis-
missible Soviet boilerplate."
The Soviets, she said,
"are well aware of the
seminal role of the
American media and
during the past five years
they have exploited their
accessibility to the hilt."
Another conference speaker,
Michael A. Ledeen, a senior fellow at
Georgetown University Center for
Strategic and International Studies,
contended that both politicians and
the press contribute to alleged U.S.
naivete about Soviet ideological war-
fare.
"Our politicians," he said, "are
generally on-the-job learners, or if
they are professionals, they have ev-
ery reason to be cautious rather than
aggressive. Those who don't know
how to do it, and those who know how
to do it, can't afford to be aggres-
sive - and that is a tough problem."
Ledeen, a White House national
security advisor, former Rome cor-
respondent for New Republic and a
contributor to the Los Angeles Times
and other publications, claimed "The
American public cannot conceivably
get a realistic view of the world by
reading the American press or looking
at tv. It's as simple as that."
"To get a 'real view' of the world,"
he said, Americans must go "partially
outside. They have to read the Lon-
don Economist, they have to spend
hours watching something like Cable
News Network - something outside
the normal fare."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570029-4