WORLD PRESS CHARTER OPPOSED

Grey River Argus, 27 March 1948, Page 3

WORLD PRESS CHARTER OPPOSED

GENEVA, March 24. The steering committee of the United Nations Conference on Freedom of Information voted by nine to two against the Russian international charter for the world’s press going on the conference agenda. The Russian delegate, M. Bogomolov, claimed that this infringed nations’ sovereign rights. The Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (Mr Benjamin Cohen) told the 500 delegates to the conference that the press and other channels of information were responsible for much of tne world’s confusion. . ,

Opening the conference, at. which 50 nations are represented. Mr Cohen said that people everywhere were clamouring to learn what was really happening in the world. “That clamour can only be answered through truthful, comprehensive, and timely information’’. The conference elected General Carlos P. Romulo (Philippines) as president, and established four main committees —on the basic tasks of the press, on the gathering and international transmission of news, on free publical ion and reception of information, and on questions of law. The conference twice, rejected a Russian proposal that 13 non-member States invited should have the right to vote. ‘■CAPITALIST” PRESS The Yugoslav delegation alleged that the press in many countries had become a capitalist industry. The delegation demanded that those who controlled the organs of information should be legally responsible for any “calumnies, lies, and incitements to war which iney publish". Reuter correspondent says this statement may be the opening broadside in the ideological war which is expected at the conference.