‘BLACKED OUT'.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 483, 25 June 1890, Page 3

‘BLACKED OUT'.

The most interesting article in this month’s ‘Century’ is Mr Kennan’s account of the methods of the Press Censor in Russia : How the Press Censor Works in Russia. Mv experience and training as a newspaper man (says Mr Kennan) naturally made me feel more than an ordinary interest in the practical working of the Russian system of press censorship, and after my return from" Siberia to European Russia I devoted all the time that I could spare to a study of the subject. I talked with all the editors and authors whose acquaintance I could make; visited newspaper offices and listened to the comments of the editorial stafF upon the censor’s erasures, interlineations, and prohibitions : and made a large collection of original proof-sheets to illustrate the working of this system of repression, and to show how narrow are the limits within which Russian editors and reporters are allowed to express their opinions or display their activity and enterprise. ‘C-e-n-so-r. In the office of a Russian daily newspaper the last proof-sheets are received from the censor between twelve and one o’clock at night. The whole night staff usually assemble in response to theory, ‘C-e-n-s-o-r !’ and one of the editors looks over the slips and announces to his co-workers the nature of the changes that have been made by the olficial guardian of the public mind and morals, and reads aloud the titles or headings of the articles that have been forbidden altogether. A hasty consultation is then held With regard to the course to be pursued. If the very vitals of an editorial article have been cut out by the censor, the night editor must decide whether the remains can be patched up by means of a skilful surgical operation so that they will have the semblance of organic life and unity, or whether, on the other hand, they are so mutilated that nothing can be done with them except to bury them in the waste paper basket. If the censor has merely suggested unimportant changes or modifications, the night editor must pass judgment upon them and return every article to its author for such corrections as may be necessary. When the Censor Goes Home. A large quantity of matter that has already been submitted and approved is kept standing in type, and with it are filled up the gaps left by the striking out at the last moment, of items or editorial articles that are declared by the censor to be ‘outof place’ or ‘pernicious in their tendency.’ When the revised proofs have been again examined and the censor has gone home, the work of the editors and reporters is ended for the day. Moscow may be burned to the ground, or the Czar may be assassinated, but after the censor has retired to his couch not a line of new matter can be put into the columns of the paper. It may perhaps be thought by persons not familiar with the Russian censorship that cases of wholesale prohibition are rare—that the censor, as a rule, exercises his power with reasonable discretion and forbearance ; but such is by no means the fact. I have copies of Russian newspapers in which from eight to fourteen articles or editorials have been stricken out and prohibited altogether to say nothing of changes and modifications in the language of the items that have been allowed to stand, ‘Blacking Out’ the Foreigners,

But Russian journals were not t.ho only periodicals that circulated in the Empire. Newspapers and magazines published in London, Paris, Berlin, and New York City came constantly to Russia, bearing in their closely packed columns the seals of discontent and ‘ sedition.’ How were the subjects ot the Czar to be protected from the ‘ pernicious ’ influence ot this foreign literature ? The Russian press censor, omnipotent although he might be in his own field, could not cross out with red ink, an obnoxious editorial in the proof-sheets of the London ‘ Times,’ nor suppress ‘ The Century Magazine ’ for publishing a series of articles on the exile system ; and yet the Russian people must be prevented in some way from reading the objectionable parts of such periodicals. When confronted by this difficulty the Russian Government acted with characteristic directness and vigour. It made the mere possession of forbidden literature a penal oflence, and then, as if that was not enough, it violated the sanctity of its own mails, seized, opened and examined every foreign periodical that came into the Empire, and appointed a staff of censors to tear out or ‘ black out ’ every editorial that criticised unfavourably Russian Government methods, and every magazine article that, in the judgment of sucTi censors, was ‘ pernicious ' in its tendency. How the Trick is Done.

The removal of objectionable articles or items from foreign periodicals in Russia is accomplished in two ways. If they are long and bulky, they are torn or cut out bodily. If they are brief, they are blacked out by means of a rectangular stamp which has about the width of an ordinary newspaper column, and which is ‘ cross-hatched ’ in such a way that when inked and pressed upon the paper it makes a close network of white lines and black diamonds. Tho peculiar mottled or grained appearance of a page of print that has been blacked out with this stomp has suggested to Russian readers a descriptive slang term for it—namely, ‘caviare.’ Anyone who has ever seen the black salted caviare of Russia spread upon a slice of bread and butter will appreciate the felicity of the metaphorical comparison. From the noun a verb has been formed, and every Russian now understands that * to caviare ’ means to ‘ black out’ an objectionable page or paragraph by pressing upon it the censor’s stamp. Mr Kennan gives some specimens of the blacker's art, for which see ‘ Century.’