PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 112, 28 May 1937, Page 12

PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS

"An Aid Tp Free Speech" POSITION IN AMERJCA NEW YORK, May 13. American traditions of private ownership and operation of radio facilities are championed by William S. Paley, president of the Columbia Broadcasting System, in the company's report of 1936. After expressing satisfaction with results of the radio chain'# pplicy of confining its product to impartial and nonpartisan broadcasts, rather than see'king "to exert editorial sway on the outcpme of issueSj,v*J51f Paley goes on to say: "Not oply baye we reject,ed any effort towa-rd editorial influence, but we have also rejected censorship ; so that whetb.er an issn.e be political, eocial or economic, whether it be discussed in a political campaign or not, all speakers are free to say what they please, so long as they ohey thp ordinary laws agaanst libel and slauder, and so long as they cpnduct themselves with reasonable taste and decorum in the living rooms of the nation. "There is a double significanc.e in our rejection of censorship. First, it proves tiiat we are under no compulsion to nphold tjie views .of .others 5 second, it prQves that we have no editorial views of our Qwn tp maintain. Thus free speech, wijbhout whi,ch there can be no dpjnocracy, has taken great for ward strides on a new fr.op.t/' In no country in which broadcasting was in the hands of government could this new tool of democraoy have been forged, . Mr Paley declared. He added that the puccess of the company's polijcies— reflected in part by the largesl distribution of divjdends to stockhoiders i.u its history — had justified all the sacrifices necessary to carry them into oppration. Fjurther, in relation to politics, ho remarked : — •"Wisest pf all, I think, was our deterimnation to sell time only for adyertising of gqods and Bervice, and to refuse to sell it for propaganda." He qualified his comment, however, by mentioning "the sale of facilities to a political party during, an actual campaign for the election of candidates" as an .exceptipn. "In ciioosingv" said he, "to allot timo at our own expense for the discussion pf ppblic issues, we have been able to maintain programme halance and to prevent a powerful mediuni from being oneHsideui jvused . ' ' President Roosevelt's proposals for a change in the fecleral judiciary offered radio broadcasting another opportunity to play an impartial part in publio servicd, accordipg to Mr Paley. He cLenied that brogdcasters were under itbe domiuation of the Administration, observing that while as niany speakers for one side had been pqt 011 the air as the other, it was difficult for the radio chain to find speakers for the opposition."