PRESS CENSORSHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 January 1941, Page 8

PRESS CENSORSHIP

j ENDER FIRE IN BRITAIN MESSAGES TO OVERSEAS EMPIRE. STOPPAGES AND DELAYS. I

I ißy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON. January 28. The annual report of me council ci the Empire Press Union. which will be presented on February 11. deals largely with the Press censorship cede. It. the case of the Heme Press, in which censorship is voluntary, it differs constantly from the corresponding usage of the same principles followed by the official censors to which the overseas Press compulsorily submits its news i cables from the London Press, the re-

i port states. Messages for overseas are j frequently stopped or delayed nil they j are useless, though the matter I which objection is taken could not rea- | sonably be considered to touch the naThe censors sometimes have uojec- : ted to political comments .to qumaiiens I from the London Press, and to statoi merits of fact on a baseless assumption of their inaccuracy. They have als .■ objected io reports from correspondents in neutral countries, and even > .. one occasion to the wording of a Greek official communique. Messages have been delayed because of objections t ■ their "general tone.” and others have been delayed while the 8.8. C. has broadcast the same materia! to the Empire. The union has conferred with the successive Ministers of Information and the censorship authorities, who have often expressed regret and acknowledged mistakes, but the diilieiiities have continued, the report continues. It states that concern is felt regarding the 8.8. C. in relation to the Pres* Theoretically the 8.8. C. is on an exactly equal footing with the Press as far as the issue and censoring of news is concerned, but in practice the 8.8. C. has the advantage. The 8.8. C. has immediate access to the senior censors. who often pass matter which the subordinate censors in the cable offices question anti delay. The broadcasts constantly contain news or details which are not simultaneously available to the Press or have been stopped from Press publication under the censorship. There arc complaints of preferential treatment of the 8.8. C., especially by the service departments, including the timing of communiques to coincide with the news broadcasting hours. This affects both the home and overseas Press. Vigorous protests which have been made by the Newspaper and Periodical Emergency Council have been supported by the Press Union. The report readily concedes that broadcasting of British news in the present circumstances must be given wide scope but, specially because of the immense lime advantage in radio j transmission, it is maintained that; scrupulous equality in official treat-’

menl should be accorded to the Press. The 8.8. C. has the advantage of instantaneous transmission of nows by radio into the homes of overseas newspaper readers without the normal time lag due to cabling, sub-editing, etc., which inevitably handicaps the Press. The report comments on alack of ccnsidcration between the ' censorship and other Government departments. It relates that Empire correspondents were invited to Bristol last August m verify the absence of air-raid damage to ’.he port, which the Germans had described as navmg boon put pnictieaily out of action. The Empire and American correspondents w<-re salis- ; lied that practically no damu b e had been done, but they found that the name of the port must not be mcntii n<?d m their cabled dispatches.