Information, Ministry of

British government department created in 1939, at the beginning of World War II, to control the supply and content of information about the war. It distributed British government propaganda and controlled censorship for the duration of the war, a function considered vital to the war effort. The ministry also produced informative and morale-boosting material, working closely with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Home Service to put out the most positive angle on the day's news. To reassure the public and maximize national efficiency, the ministry created posters, pamphlets, and public information films about air-raid shelters, gas attacks, and self-sufficiency.

Actors, writers, directors, and artists were employed to produce positive images of Britain. Henry V (1944) by Laurence Olivier, based on the play by William Shakespeare, was just one of the many films celebrating historic British endeavour and culture. Other films, such as Went the Day Well? (1942) in which a single village repels a German invasion, poked fun at the enemy. Food rationing had been introduced at the beginning of the war and there was a government drive towards self-sufficiency. Poster campaigns encouraged people to ‘Dig for Victory’ by planting their own vegetable patches. Other posters discouraged gossip. The cartoonist Cyril Bird used the line ‘Careless talk costs lives’ to encourage people not to talk about potentially confidential and valuable information in case it was overheard by German spies.