Voices of Occupiers/Liberators: the BBC's radio propaganda in Italy between 1942 and 1945

Lo Biundo, E. (2016) Voices of Occupiers/Liberators: the BBC's radio propaganda in Italy between 1942 and 1945. Journal of War & Culture Studies, 9 (1). pp. 60-73. ISSN 1752-6272 doi: 10.1080/17526272.2015.1100442

Abstract/Summary

The ambiguity of the role played by British propaganda in Italy during the Second World War is clearly reflected in the phenomenon of Radio London. While Radio London raised the morale of the Italian civilians living under the Fascist regime and provided them with alternative information on the conflict, the microphones of the BBC were also used by the British government to address a country they were planning to occupy. In this article, I will analyse the occupation/liberation operations that were run at the BBC Italian Service from two separate angles. On the one hand, the analysis of the programmes broadcast between the months preceding the Allies’ landing in Sicily and the actual occupation shows how the Allies built their image as liberators and guarantors of better living conditions. On the other, the analysis of the relationships between the Foreign Office and the anti-Fascist exiles reveals that the Italian BBC broadcasters were not always allowed to freely express their political opinion or to dispose of their own lives.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/57627
Identification Number/DOI	10.1080/17526272.2015.1100442
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item