WORLD NEWS SOURCES

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20739, 24 February 1939, Page 9

WORLD NEWS SOURCES

SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC WORK OF PRESS ASSOCIATION CHARGE OF BIAS ANSWERED (By Telegraph.—Press Association HANMER SPRINGS, Friday. “The Press Association with which we are immediately concerned is regularly charged, by Ministers of the Crown, with bias and unreliability,” said the chairman, Sir Cecil Leys, at the annual meeting of the Press Association to-day. “On this is ostensibly based the steady antagonism of the present Government. There is absolutely nothing to support in the slightest degree such a charge, and it is necessary, if free speech is to be maintained in this country and we are not going to sink to the levels of servitude that exist in Russia, Germany and Italy to-day, dial the public should he aide to judge of the facts. "There is general public ignorance regarding the service that the Association undertakes, and I think it desirable that a statement should he made regarding its functions. A clear understanding or the facts cannot fail to disabuse Ihe public mind of Ihe prejudices that the steady attacks of politicians are calculated to create.

“The work of the Press Association is divided into two parts. Most important is its undertaking to provide a complete picture of “World news. Its principal contract for this purpose is with the Australian Associated Press. This organisation maintains a large staff of journalists in London. They have rights to the news services of the Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily News and Newspapers, Limited* Associated Newspapers Ltd. ' Publishers of Daily Mail, .Mirror and Evening News . Daily Herald and Manchester Guardian. In addition they have at their disposal Reuters World News, The Exchange Co., IJritisli United Press reports and Lloyds Shipping Service. Wide-Spread Net “A New York office has rights to draw on the New York Times, United Press and North American Newspaper Alliance. There are also correspondents at Vancouver, Honolulu, Suva, Capstown, Peiping, Shanghai, Colombo, Hongkong, Tokio, Singapore, Koepang and Batavia.

“lt will be seen that tlie sources of the cable service could hardly be more comprehensive. There are two things that may militate against the production of perfect results from this widespread net. In my opinion the European despatches to English papers are often tinged by what British opinion of the day favours. The best. American correspondents in ihe main present an unprejudiced survey of the facts as they see them. In matters such as the Abyssinian and Spanish wars and the Russian Soviet they have been in the light of after events more reliable than their Britsh colleagues. “But with the whole range of the work of the correspondents of the English Press to draw from we should have a picture of international affairs more comprehensive than the reader of one or two London dailies can hope to receive. The Press Association has recently acquired the rights af a cable service established by the Sydney Daily Telegraph so that there is available to all New Zealand papers international news more widely based than is the case with any newspaper in Australia. International Picture “We are entitled to ask the public lo bear these facts in mind, and to recognise that the Press of this country is continually endeavouring? to ensure for its readers a foreign news service which, within the limits imposed by distance, time and cost of transmission, will bear comparison with any other. “I think also that our readers might be better acquainted than they are with the great and growing difficulties, especially in a time of international crisis, of compiling, for cabling to New- Zealand, the facts of a constantly .•hanging situation. The policies of (Treat Britain, and even more of some of the dictatorship Powers, are to-day capable of interpretation from sharplydiffering points of view. From one viewpoint a specific statement or action may seem of little importance; from another it may seem for the time being all important. “It would be comparatively easy for the newspapers of this country, through their cable service, to present i smooth-reading and plausible narrative of events in Europe. By so doing they might, perhaps, greatly please one section or another .of their readers. But there never was a time when it was more incumbent upon Ihe newspapers and their staffs, both here and abroad, to report Ihe facts, .ind in reporting them to be uninfluenced by political or other preconceptions. The business of compiling highly-coloured, speculative narratives, spiced with innuendo, may be left to other less responsible media. New Zealand Service “The second part of the Association's work is concerned with the supply of the news of the Dominion. This is on a co-operative basis, newspaper proprietors in all centres being responsible for providin ga summary of ihe news appearing in the columns of their papers. Apart from accounts of happenings, a summary is made of the utterances of politicians on the Treasury benches or in Opposition, of leaders in industry, agriculture, education, sport and all others whose views are of general public interest. “In the production of this news service there are engaged probably not less than 100 senior journalists. Their work is carefully watched by the head office and notice is taken promptly of any failure .to send out i a report of any matter of public interest, or any partisan trend is censured. The larger newspapers have special correspondents in many centres, but their work must not be contused with that of Press Association agents, whose function is to provide a basic news service covering the whole of New Zealand. “Ministers of the Grown from whom criticism of the association's service mainly comes, are now receiving more attention and publicity for their utterances and movements than at any period in New' Zealand's

history. In ihe case of the Hon. P. Webb, the assistance of this impartial publicity has been acknowledged; for the rest we are prepared to let the newspaper reader he the judge. In doing so we would like to draw his or her attention to the remark of an American writer who very aptly says; The reporter is not an historian evaluating events according to their results, hut a recorder of current af-

fairs. The more impartial the reporting the better it is, but the worse it appears to everyone whose prejudice is involved.”