RADIO AND THE PRESS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 126, 14 June 1937, Page 6

RADIO AND THE PRESS.

The telegraphed report we have. to-dlay from Aucklarvt}. as to what the Acting Prime Minister has now to say on Vfee subject will be read with interest by all tbose eoneerned. for the preservation of "B " radio stations. In the first ^place, Mr. Eraser still seeks to maintain the fiction that the agjftation raised is entirely of political origin. The best way to dispose of that fs to cite the fact that at last week's Auckl'/wid mass meeting of protest the chair was- oeenpied by a- pwfessor of the Auckland University, who> was also the. chif£f speaker. Furthermore, messages of sympathy and support. the object in view were received from such varying religixms representation as the Roman Catholic Bishop, the Auckland Presbytery, the Methodist Fraternad and the British-Israel Federation, and also from the Rationalists' Assoeiation and the Returned Soldiers' Association. It is thus fairly clear that the Minister 's talk of a "political ramp " — a favourite smokescreen for Labour apologists — has no real justification. The real truth is that the outcry is t&e very natural result of an arbitrary intention to suppress popular services which the people wish to see maintained. The indignation and resentment are, of course, all the more fervid because the course taken is in direct violation of election pledges voiuntarily given and subsequently confirmed. The full local press reports of the meeting show that party politics in no way entered into the discussion, while the resolution almost unanimously passed was couched in the most moderate and respectful language. And yet it was the proceedings at this meeting which the responsible Minister refused leave to have broadcast. That this was a purely dietatorial exercise of power, and with a protective party motive at the hack of it, cannot be denied with any hope of acceptance. Indeed, the surprise is that Mr. . Peter Fraser, as a rule fairly logical, shonld attempt so shadowy a defence of the action of his colleague. Nor is there very much more substance in his suggestion of anxiety about the development of monopolies, for the Government has taken very good care to arm itself with the fullest statutory authority to prevent anything of the kind. The same, too, may be said with respect to the possibility of any trespass on the Government *s own monopoly of the air as an advertising medium. To this no objeetion has been raised, though it is proposed to afford facilitles for advertising Australian wares that come into competition with the products of our own factories and thus reduce the volume of employment available in this country. In the faca of facts the Acting Prime Minister 's talk about being anxious to "guarantee freedom of expression" sounds singularly empty. Freedom of expression counts for very little in these days unless there goes with it freedom o£ publicity, and that is what the Minister in charge of broadcasting was obviously out to stifle. His refusal of leave to broadcast the speeches at the Auckland meeting gives us only a foretaste of what we may expect once the Government has got the whole broadcasting service undea- its own immediate direction and control. Then listeners will hear notliing that has not passed the ministerial censorship. It will no doubt be observed that Mr. Fraser expresses himself as entirely satisfied %vxth the publicity given by the press to the sayings and doings of the Government and its supporters. This is, of course, not quite in keeping with what some of his colleagues, and particularly his chief, may on ' occasion have had to say on the same subject. But it is none the less true that there has never been any other Government in this country that has been afforded such "freedom of expression" through the, columns of the newspapers as that now in office, or that has taken such full advantage of it. For all its purposes and all its claims and all its propaganda it has had the widest possible gratuitous advertisement. This has been a gift from the so-called "Capitalist Press," but now that we have a "Socialist Government" in full control of another and, so it is claimed, a still more farreaching vehicle of publicity, we are to have, the "gag"— Labour 's own favourite word — imposed on everything that does not meet with ministerial approval.