Gathering Screenwriters: NATO's Propaganda Efforts in the Film World Exposed

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON — The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is reportedly organising a series of closed meetings with film and television screenwriters, directors, and producers in Europe and the United States (US). A report uncovered by The Guardian has triggered accusations that NATO is attempting to use the arts world as a propaganda tool for the bloc.

To date, NATO has held three meetings with entertainment industry professionals in Los Angeles, Brussels, and Paris. The alliance is scheduled to continue this “series of informal conversations” next month in London, to meet members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), the organisation representing professional writers in the United Kingdom.

The planned London meeting has sparked concerns among invitees. Some of them feel as though they are being asked to “contribute to creating propaganda for NATO.”

The forthcoming meeting will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule—where participants are free to use the information received, but the identity of the speaker must not be revealed. The main topic of discussion is the “evolving security situation in Europe and its surroundings.”

James Appathurai, former NATO spokesperson who now serves as assistant deputy secretary general for hybrid, cyber, and new technologies, is reportedly set to attend alongside other alliance officials.

In an official WGGB email viewed by The Guardian, it is stated that the meetings have produced “three separate projects” that are currently being developed. These projects are described as “inspired, at least in part, by those conversations.”

The organisers stated that NATO is built on the belief that cooperation, compromise, and building friendships and alliances are the way forward. “Even if a message as simple as that makes it into a story in the future, that would be enough,” wrote the event organisers.

Nevertheless, Alan O’Gorman, writer of the film Christy which won best film at the Irish Film & Television Awards 2026, described the planned meetings as “outrageous” and “clearly an attempt at propaganda.”