THE SOVIET KGB AND THE PRESS

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Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570029-4
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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
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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