BRITAIN'S CENSOR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 122, 26 May 1942, Page 4

BRITAIN'S CENSOR

BIS limited powers

FREEDOM OF OPINION

Some interesting points regarding the function of censorship in wartime have been made by Mr. Brendan Bracken, Minister of Information in the British Cabinet, in an article published in Life magazine. He says there will never be a "Yes" Press in Great Britain. The freedom of the Press is as important as an independent judiciary or as Parliamentary Government.

Mr. Bracken states that Britain's wartime censorship has been evolved by compromise. It is a voluntary system, and under it the censors and the Press combine to withhold from publication news which is of value to the enemy. While editors frequently consult the censor upon matters about which they are in doubt, the censor's ruling has no effect of legal bar to publication. An editor may publish despite the censor's ruling, and cannot be prosecuted on that ground. The paper can, however, De prosecuted for a breach of the Defence Regulations, drawn for jmrpose of preventing the publication of news which may be useful to the enemy. "The final decision to publish or not to publish always rests with the editor of a newspaper " writes Mr. Bracken. "Like the Duke of Wellington, he may say, 'Publish and be damned' and not automatically be guilty of an offence." If the Government thinks he has infringed the Defence Regulations, they still have to prove their case in a court of law, ana the law is jealous of its impartial justice, specially when the administration is concerned.

Censorship is no simple ar*. Any fact may be news, and any fact from a country at war may be of some value to 'the enemy. A shortage of this or that, a strike here —all such facts are watched for by the enemy. Solely from the security point of view, it might be better not to publish anything at all, but that would keep our own people in the dark. Happenings in pre-Vichy France showed how a savage censorship played no small part in the fall of the country. It encouraged defeatism and bred complacency. "A blinded democracy is more likely to fall than fight," says Mr. Bracken. "France had every right to applaud Bismarck's saying, 'Nothing is proved finally true till it is officially denied.' " The follies of the French censors taught Britain a healthy lesson. The people have the right to draw their own conclusions on what is published, to criticise and to demand that things which are wrong should be put right. The censor has to keep the balance between the official wish to publish nothing and the public's right to be acquainted with events. Somehow this has been done in Britain—otherwise voluntary censorship would have broken down. Not Even Concerned With Accuracy

The censor in Britain, Mr. Bracken explains, is not equipped with a relentless pair of shears. He is an adviser and guide, and can be argued with. "The censor is not concerned with expressions of opinion. The truth or accuracy of any statement is none of his business, though if a newspaper asks his views he is ready to give them." Where an article containing nothing likely to be of advantage to the enemy nevertheless contains statements which appear to be untrue and may even have been written with the object of influencing public opinion against the war, he stamps it: "Passed as not containing information of value to the enemy, but. the Censorship takes no responsibility for the publication of this article in any other respect." It is an offence under the Defence Regulations to publish false statements of such a kihd.

The censor has no right to stop anything except on grounds of security. He cannot even stop matter which might provide the enemy with material for propaganda. Exactly the same rules are enforced in regard to messages for the foreign Press as for the Home newspapers. Speculation and comment is often allowed to be cabled or sent by radio, also quotations from the lively and critical Home Press.

Mr. Bracken describes in detail the working of the system, and one remarkable fact emerges — speed. Cables for the foreign Press go through with startling celerity. In one cable office, where the censors handle more than one million words a month, 75 per cent of the cables go through with a delay of only one minute, and another 20 per cent with less than five minutes.