section_path: Controversies/Funding by the UK Government
section_name: Funding by the UK Government
paragraph_text: Funding by the UK Government
  
  In November 2019, the UK Foreign Office released archive documents confirming that it had provided funding to Reuters during the 1960s and 1970s so that Reuters could expand its coverage in the Middle East. An agreement was made between the Information Research Department (IRD) and Reuters for the UK Treasury to provide £350,000 over four years to fund Reuters' expansion. The UK government had already been funding the Latin American department of Reuters through a shell company, but that method was discounted for the Middle East operation since the accounting of the shell company looked suspicious, and the IRD stated that the company "already looks queer to anyone who might wish to investigate why such an inactive and unprofitable company continues to run." Instead, the BBC was used to fund the project by paying for enhanced subscriptions to the news organisation for which the Treasury would reimburse the BBC at a later date. The IRD acknowledged that this agreement would not give them editorial control over Reuters, although the IRD believed it would give them political influence over Reuters' work, stating "this influence would flow, at the top level, from Reuters' willingness to consult and to listen to views expressed on the results of its work."