THE POWER OF "LA PRENSA"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 255, 12 May 1944, Page 10

THE POWER OF "LA PRENSA"

Argentina's Amazing Newspaper

NEW YORK, April 26 The Argentine Government to-day banned the Buenos Aires newspaper ‘‘La Prensa" for five days because of an allegedly misleading and false’ editorial criticising municipal hospital services. The United Press points out that "La Prensa" recently criticised the Government restrictions on the Press, and also that it is constantly pro-Ally.-Cable. Xk oe %* SOME people who read the above message may have wondered why the banning of a newspaper in the Argentine should have been considered important enough to cable round the world. Was it simply because the whole subject of censorship is in the news, or because "La Prensa" has, in itself, some special claim to attention? The following condensation of an article by George Kent in "Editor and Publisher," supplies the answer: A PRENSA" (the name means "The Press") regards itself not merely as a newspaper but as an institution with a solemn duty to do everything in its power to help the people of Argentina. If you are ill, you can be treated at La Prensa’s clinic by the country’s ablest physicians-and pay nothing. La Prensa dentists will pull, fill or bridge your teeth, again at no cost. If you are in legal trouble, La Prensez lawyers will advise you and, if you are poor, fight your case. These services are not tricks to build up circulation. Everyone is welcome, whether he buys the paper or not. If you are a farmer, La Prensa will analyse your soil or tell you what to do for an ailing animal. If your children have musical ability, La Prensa’s conservatory of music will teach them gratis, and: if they are highly gifted, will finance their further study abroad. La Prensa also runs a public library, a lecture hall free to virtually any group that wishes to use it, and a laboratory to which any shopper can send a product for analysis. All these activities are incidental to publishing one of the world’s truly

great newspapers. The founder of La Prensa was the late José Clemente Paz. The first issue, appearing in 1869, laid down its guiding principles-Truth: Honour: Freedom: Progress: Civilisation. The newspaper grew steadily in size and importance. When immigrants began pouring into Argentina to work in the wheat-fields, La Prensa offered itself as a mailing address. To this day, many persons use it as their general-delivery window. Built on Small Advertisements The newspaper further endeared itself to new settlers by publishing local news from their native towns in Europe. When the immigrants became citizens

with property and businesses of their own, they turned to La Prensa when they had something to offer the public. It became the market place where anything could be bought or sold, where a man could find a job and an employer could find help. Thousands of humble two-line and three-line want ads. became La Prensa’s chief income; in time they made it rich. Behind this strong rampart of little people it is to-day the wealthiest newspaper in the world. Lea Prensa editorials are prepared with all the care of a lawyer presenting a case to the Supreme Court; but they’re tough, fighting editorials. There’s a saying in Buenos Aires that when La Prensa attacks, governments fall. In a large measure, this is true, although the process sometimes takes time. A case in point is the recent Castillo regime, which La Prensa steadfastly opposed. At one time or another, attempting to influence its policies, governments, large corporations, special interests have -wheedled and tried bribery and resorted to force-to no avail. Nazi groups not long ago tossed bombs through its iron gates. Machine-guns have rattled slugs through the windows. Once an organised mob became so threatening that the publishers charged the patio with electricity and flooded it (continued on next page)

. (continued from previous page) with water, so that anyone setting foot inside would be severely shocked. There’s a salle d’armes in the building where editors perfect themselves in the use of the épée and sabre. Ezequiel * Paz, the present director, is himself a crack shot. No Government Advertising The newspaper goes to great extremes to keep clear of outside influence. Not a penny of its vast funds is invested in commercial or industrial securities. Don Ezequiel accepts no invitations to political or diplomatic gatherings, lest he incur obligations hampering the paper’s freedom. La Prensa will accept no government advertising. It takes no electioneering advertisements, on the ground that the practice favours the candidate with the fattest purse. Typical of the paper’s integrity is this story: La Prensa published an editorial criticising a large corporation. The following day, the firm tried to insert a two-page ad. replying to the attack. The director rejected the ad., saying courteously: "If you wish to repiy, prepare a statement, and we will print it as news." Even those who hate La Prensa, respect it. This attitude helps explain the reluctance of the authorities to impose censorship on it. The late Castillo regime suppressed several newspapers; but Za Prensa, lambasting the government harder than any of the others, was left strictly alone. Zeal for Foreign News La Prensa sGretly publishes more foreign news thah any other newspaper in the world. When other papers in Buenos Aires were carrying pages on the boxer Firpo, who defeated Willard and then lost to Dempsey, La Prensa dismissed him with an occasional paragraph or two. On the other hand, the paper brought in the Capablanca-Lasker championship chess match from Havana, move by move, at one and a-half dollars a word. It spent 10,000 dollars to have the entire 30,000-word Dawes Plan report on German reparations cabled to Buenos Aires, probably the longest story ever wired to a newspaper. It was an alert Prensa editor who asked the United Press in Berlin to interview a certain obscure German mathematician. The man was Albert Einstein, and La Prensa was thus responsible for focusing world attention on his theory of relativity. La Prensa’s zeal for foreign news had important results, During the last war, its news came almost entirely from Havas, the French news service, Havas irritated La Prensa by its failure to give the German viewpoint, even refusing to transmit the enemy’s communiqués, But the moment war was — over, La Prensa prevailed upon the United Press to cover the world with correspondents who would go directly to the sources for their news. ... If people in the United States now read more foreign news than others do, it is partly _ because La Prensa started the expansion. La Prensa editors sit on hand-tooled leather chairs in hushed offices, and until recently wrote their material in longhand. Except for the stutter of teletypes, the quiet of the central newsroom is in striking contrast to the bustle of a newspaper office in the United (continued on next page)

"LA PRENSA" (continued from previous page) States. Yet when a big story breaks, La Prensa editors spring to life. One of them sent aifplanes which obtained the first photographs of the battle with the Graf Spee. When Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer, was lost, La Prensa organised an expedition to speed to his rescue. On election day, the reporters become watchers at the polls, as a. guarantee of the honesty of the vote casting. When the story is of world importance, a siren atop the building lets go in a deafening howl. It brings people running ftom stores and offices to the sedate bulletin board on the ground floor. They come in numbers sufficient to stop traffic on Buenos Aires’ Acenida de Mayo. No Sensationalism In other Buenos Aires newspapers you will find plenty of sm&sh headlines, stofies reported in all their gruesome and succulent detail, but La Prensa goes its sedate way. Except for a box on the front page, containing only headlines, the first five to eight pages of the newspaper are solid with want ads. The news columns follow, but you will find no headline taller than half an inch, No signature appeats above any news despatch. Divorces ate reported without elaboration. Suicides are set down as simple deaths. Even murders have been reported as a death under distressing circumstances. The same delicacy carries over in the advertising department, where the publishers hesitated about accepting a Wrigley advertisement because they did not like the idea of introducing the chewifg-gum habit to Argentina. When the author of La Prensa’s comic strip, Don Fulgencio, lent his character to advertise a brand of coffee, La Prensa not only rejected the ad., but threw the strip out of the paper. The strip was Argentina’s favourite. Imagine a U.S. newspaper eliminating Superman or Blondie for like reason! Toward employees, La Prensa exer cises a benevolent and patriachal interest. When a man gets too old, he stops working but goes right on drawing full pay. Only three persotis have ever been fired. Orice a want-ad. clerk was short in his accounts; La Prensa simply transferred him to another department in which he did not handle cash, The present director, Don Ezequiel, was borfi a few years after the paper was fotitided. He is now 72 years old. In the lean, early days, he worked in the composifg room, setting type and cranking the old flatbed press. Later, he concentrated on editorial matter. When the present home of La Prensa was built, it was the most magnificent structure in the city, for the founder’ considered journalism the highest 3 of public service, and thought that the paper should have a home worthy of its importance. Once when a _ reptesentative of the Vatican, visiting La Prensa, remarked: "This seems rather luxurious for a newspaper," Don José replied blandly, "Isn’t St. Peter’s in Rome somewhat luxurious?" La Prensa has not always been a friend of the United States. Its owners have often disagreed with Washington (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) policy. Some of the most scathing antiUnited States editorials ever published have appeared in its columns. In recent years, however, the paper has consistently supported the cause of hemisphere solidarity, and attacked the Axis. La Prensa has a reputation of having shaped most of the foreign policies of Argentina, Until now, the pro-Axis forces have had their way, despite the paper’s editorials, but the struggle is not yet over, and La Prensa has developed a sympathy for the United States and the Allied cause that in time must swing the nation to our side,