MUSSOLINI’S BOAST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 483, 12 October 1928, Page 9

MUSSOLINI’S BOAST

ITALY’S PRESS MOST FREE SERVICE TO REGIME (Australian and 2?.Z. Press Association) ROME, Thursday. In the course of an address to 70 directors of Fascist daily newspapers, the Prime Minister, Signor Mussolini, claimed that the Italian Press was the freest in the world. In explanation of that statement, he said it was in an all-embracing regime. The Press must not be a stranger to general unity. Therefore, it avoided what waq harmful and sought what was useful for the regime. Newspapers in other countries were under the orders of plutocratic party groups. They were reduced to the necessity of buying and selling exciting news. They were getting into the hands of a restricted number of persons, who regarded them as a trade, like iron or leather. Italian journalism, on the other hand, was free becatlse it served the regime. It had no need to await orders, because it received orders from its own conscience. The Fascist Press was like an orchestra playing the same note of Its own accord Signor Mussolini proceeded to tell the journalists that their task would become more important in a few months, when the Italian people would be called upon to vote at the elections and to demonstrate to the world their full concurrence in the regime. It was necessary to prepare for this great demonstration, and the newspapers had the means for doing so worthily.