By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
A "rapid response unit" should be set-up by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) ahead of next year's Olympics and Paralympics to "rebut or challenge negative stories appearing in the world media", a report published by MPs has recommended.
About 25,000 journalists will attend the Games and four billion people will be watching on their televisions.
The Olympics can boost a country's profile, as was the case with Sydney when it hosted the 2000 Olympics, but there is a greater risk of a disastrous Games damaging a country's reputation, the report, FCO Public Diplomacy: The Olympics, concluded.
"We conclude that the 2012 Olympics pose potential reputational risks as well as opportunities for the UK," it said.
"The FCO is not the lead Department in contingency planning for organisational, transport or security problems during the Games, but it will have a responsibility for seeking to influence overseas perceptions of any problems that arise.
"We recommend that the FCO should make sure that, acting in concert with its Olympics public diplomacy partners, there is a 'rapid response unit' adequately resourced and prepared to take swift action to rebut or challenge negative stories appearing in the world media.
"We further recommend that this unit should be up and running significantly in advance of the start of the Games, that it should engage in intensive preparatory scenario-modelling, and that it should draw on the experience of successful media strategies by other recent host countries of major sporting events, notably Australia with the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Germany with the 2006 World Cup."
In its evidence, the FCO recognised the Games can help with Britain's security, and said it would use the event to promote a message of tolerance and moderation in strategically important countries.
The Pakistan cricketer and England spin coach Mushtaq Ahmed is among leading names who will feature in a series of short films online talking about what Britain has meant to them.
The Committee, which is chaired by Conservative MP Richard Ottaway and also includes Menzies Campbell, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats who represented Britain in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, praised the FCO's work on using social media and Twitter to get its message across, especially at a time of Government cutbacks.
There is also praise for the International Inspirations programme, born out of London's successful bid to host the Games and which is supported by the likes of David Beckham (pictured), Colin Jackson, Sir Chris Hoy and Sebastian Coe.
"We are particularly impressed by the 'International Inspirations' programme, jointly organised by the FCO with UK Sport and the British Council, which aims to bring the benefits of sport to 12 million children in 20 countries," the report said.
"We recommend that the FCO should give high prominence to this programme in its public diplomacy work.
"We are concerned, however, that the overall message conveyed by the FCO's campaign is somewhat bland and ill-defined.
"We recommend that the campaign should focus on sending out one overarching message.
"That message should be the one successfully deployed in the UK's original Olympics bid, that London is an open and welcoming city, and that the UK is a diverse, inclusive and friendly country - that both London and the UK are, in a word, generous.
"Such a message would also help to redress some long-standing misperceptions of the UK."
But it warned of a danger of failing to regard Olympic public diplomacy as a priority.
MPs fear that the spending squeeze risks squandering a "once-in-a-generation" chance to promote Britain on the world stage.
The Foreign Affairs Select Committee is concerned that cutbacks on UK Embassies and Diplomatic Missions in the 18-month run-up to the Games will impact on Olympic promotions.
The report also pointed out potential risks of the Games if overseas coverage focuses on blighted, recession-hit Britain rather than its world-class attractions and called for the Government to find extra funding to help support the FCO using London 2012 to ensure that Britain is viewed positively.
"We conclude that, although it would be unrealistic to expect the FCO's budget to remain unscathed at a time of economic stringency and public spending cuts, nonetheless it is important that the Department's public diplomacy work in connection with the Olympics should be regarded, during the crucial 18 months leading up to the Games, as being a priority area," said the report.
"We are concerned that the decision to cut public diplomacy funding may result in the FCO's work related to the Olympics becoming a matter solely of individual initiatives...without adequate central coordination.
"We recommend that the FCO should keep this situation under review, and stand ready to restore some degree of central funding if it becomes apparent that it would be desirable and cost-effective to do so within the wider context of the FCO's pre-Games public diplomacy strategy."
The FCO said it planned to set up a British Business Embassy in London in line with the Conservative-led Coalition's aim of promoting greater trade and inward investment.
But the Committee suggested the FCO could do more, including holding a major trade event close to or during the Games "to secure the maximum commercial benefit to the national economy."
Britain should also use the Olympics and Paralympics as an opportunity to showcase the country's values and the Committee urged it not to bow to pressure from foreign Governments to restrain from allowing people to use he Games as an opportunity to draw attention to other issues.
"We conclude that the FCO is right to use the Games to 'promote British culture and values at home and abroad', and that it should continue to target specific overseas audiences to whom it is important to communicate the message that British society is based upon the ideals of tolerance, diversity, respect for human rights, and freedom of speech and religion," the report said.
"We welcome the unequivocal assurance by the Government that the long-standing rights of free expression and freedom to protest peacefully in the UK will not be suspended because of the Olympic Games.
"We recommend that the Government, both in the run-up to the Games and during the Games themselves, should firmly resist any pressure that may be applied by certain foreign Governments to curtail the rights of freedom of expression and freedom to protest peacefully in the UK."
