THE CENSORSHIP

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16750, 4 January 1915, Page 6

THE CENSORSHIP

No doubt tho Australian complaints concerning the censorship arise from the fact that each State has its own censor's office and that different views are taken of the same , message by different officers. It must be for some such local reasons that exception is being taken to the system, because otherwise the newspapers, Australian and New Zealand, have really small ground for grumbling. At Homo the censorship has at times played some extraordinary pranks with reports, such as permitting the publication by one journal of a " story " submitted by another journal and condemned. But all the accidents of the sort are inevitable, when there are scores of different men with different views of military propriety exercising the right of censorship, and they have to bo accepted as part of an imperfect system. Tho main fact of importance to the public is that British journalism is being allowed a latitude that it can scarcely have anticipated. London has a Press Bureau not only supplying official messages but also reviewing war "stories" before they get into print. Journalism is thus subjected to the minimum of inconvenience, and taking it by and large tho London newspaper is permitted a wide range of comment. It is true that one or two journals have been sharply reminded of their responsibilities and that at least one capable critic—perhaps the most intelligent of all the military correspondents employed, in London—was given a warning to be less accurate in his deductions from official communiques, but on tho whole the critics have been allowed to elucidate the brief reports of the campaigns with perfect freedom. In France the position of the journalist is less enviable. The French critic of the war writes as his fancy dictates. He may commit to paper whatever views he thinks fit and may describe the campaign as freely as he chooses. There is no Press Bureau to check his efforts before they reach the linotype operator. But before a French journal publishes a single copy of its issue every page must be submitted' in proof to the censor, and tho result is that blank spaces not infrequently represent tho journalist's hours of patient labour. This is the regular method of censorship in a country that is at war. A journal that does not comply with the demands of the military authorities is suppressed. Thus "L'Hpmme Libro" disappeared in France, though its ingenious editor soon produced another publication which, with characteristic humour, ho named " L'Hommo Enchaine." The primary object of the censorship, of course, is to prevent the enemy from obtaining news that would be of value to them in their military operations, but tho principle is interpreted liberally, and it is frequently applied to prevent adverse comment on the policy of the Government or to suppress news of a discouraging kind. We have never been able to understand why it should bo thought necessary to withhold news of an unfavourable character, unless, of course, the operation to which it refers is still incomplete. We have been disposed to grumblo on occasion, but we can say without any mental reservation that the censorship, so far as British countries are concerned, has been exercised, in general, with unexpected lenience, and considering all the circumstances of the war the public may well count themselves to have been treated generously in the matter of news.