FREEDOM OF THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 283, 24 November 1944, Page 7

FREEDOM OF THE AIR

Sir-yYour correspondent "Argosy" taised an important question in a recent issue. "The freedom of the radio," he says, "has still to be ‘won." It is common to-day to read in ‘reputable journals (such as yours) statements praising the democratic communities, théir institutions, and their functionings. Indeed most people pay lip service to "‘democracy" and assume that it guarantees freedom of speech to all, but those people too easily confuse freedom of speech with freedom to be heard. It is the latter freedom we should be most concerned about. We cannot achieve it through the daily press. We can achieve it through the radio, but we don’t. Does the radio fulfil its task in a democratic community? Does it assist in building an informed opinion? €an we hear important matters discussed and debated over the air, matters of politics, religion, education, social progress, international affairs? No. It is true that we can hear most of the churches on the air, and also the two major political parties wrangling over hen-runs in the Hutt; and perhaps those two parties and the churches confuse this with freedom of speech in a democracy. But what of the agnostics and the rationalists? Have they not a right to be heard? We talk plenty about what we are going to do for minorities elsewhere; what about starting in our own backyard? Count out the churches, Parlfament, and advertising, and everything else informative that comes over the air is so

completely but politely emasculated that it can serve no better purpose than to earn for its authors a few honest guineas. The truth is that we New Zealanders do not regard politics or religion or any other serious matter as topics for discussion and debate; we regard them as matters for prejudice and bitterness.

W. K.

McILROY

(Palmerston).