During the Second World War, the BBC German Service, set up in 1938, reported British and Allied setbacks to German listeners. On 27 November 1942, for example, it reported the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon to keep it out of German hands.
Research at the University of Exeter, published in 2017, found that the aim was to become a trusted source of news. That meant even defeats had to be reported truthfully. The reasoning was that a side able to admit its defeats openly must be confident of winning.