The British government secretly funded Reuters News Agency in the 1960s and 1970s as part of an anti-Soviet propaganda program linked to British intelligence, concealing the funding using the BBC to make the payments, declassified government documents show. As the BBC reported Monday, the Information Research Department (IRD), an intelligence section created within the Foreign Office in 1948 to covertly produced anti-communist material, led negotiations with Reuters in 1969. Because of this, the secret government financing was hidden by increased news subscription payments to Reuters via the BBC. The amount was US$317,838 at current exchange rates per year before 1969 but then reduced to roughly US$129,000 per year in 1969-1970 and nothing in 1972-1973.
— source telesurenglish.net | 13 Jan 2020