GRAVE ALARM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 3

GRAVE ALARM.

R STATIONS' FUTURE.

ADDRESSES FROM IZM. CITIZENS' VIEWS. "We all know that Government control of broadcasting is employed to suppress critical discussion of public policy in the European countries where democracy has been defeated by dictatorship. Is it any wonder that we should look with grave alarm on the proposal—the light-hearted, confident and unblushing proposal —made by the legislators of one of the countries that stood by democracy and Parliamentary government, to wipe out the alternatives to a single State system of broadcasting?" said Professor \Y. Anderson, professor of philosophy at the Auckland University College, dining a series of addresses given by representative citizens in defence of the B stations from station IZM last evening. "-My own special interest in broadcasting concerns its educational aspeci. the way in which it informs public opiliou and provides an avenue for discussion of human interest," said Professor Anderson. "In Germany people have difficulty in acquiring wireless sets capable of receiving anything but the official diet from the home stations. Can anybody assert that there exists to-day a more powerful agency than State monopoly of wireless transmission for ensuring that the attitude of the peoples to their Governments will not be based on rational consideration of the facts for and against the official policy?

Threat to Freedom of Thought. '"It is because I feel that there are genuine grounds for alarm that I am here to urge you to make the cause of the B stations your own—go for your lives in their defence. I say that in the present threat to their existence there is a threat to what has become thi: principal stronghold of responsible freedom of speech in a modern democracy, and to that of which freedom of speech is merely the outward symbol— freedom of thought." Professor Anderson emphasised that he did not lay the responsibility for the present trouble at the door of the present Government, but at the door of officialdom. The immediate danger, as he saw it, was that broadcast matter would be what the "brains trust" thought good for the listeners. If listeners wanted a chance of hearing about the more human side of things on the air they would have to hold on to the B stations like grim death. "The present situation is that the bureaucratic point of view has triumphed again and we are back at the policy of the old broadcasting board, under which the claims of the B stations will have to wait until Domesday," concluded Professor Anderson. Emphasising that lie was not speaking as the holder of political views. Mr. E. C. Cutten said that whatever their opinions were, listeners would have to admit that the present Government went into power eighteen months ago pledged among other things to put the B stations on a sound footing. It had not done so. claiming that there had not been enough time.

Expression of Public Opinion. Mr. Cuttcn asked whether it was not that the Government could not fight the influence of existing interests. Time would subject the Government more and more* to the influence of existing interests, and the only power that could help it was an overwhelming expression of public opinion. The suppression of B .stations would destroy an important avenue for the expression of public opinion, or rather, it would destroy an important means of putting the truth before the people and of coordinating public opinion. People must insist on the preservation of the freedom of the Press and the maintenance and independence of the B stations, said Mr. C'utten. The British rijrlit to freedom of speech' was stressed by Mr. J. A. C. Allum. New Zealanders were entitled to free speech, and no one—not even the Government—bad the right to deprive them of the free use of the B stations, and thus limit the right to express their thoughts and ideas to the widest audience. On the contrary, it was the duty of the Government to assist the B stations to such an extent that they would be able to extend their activities. This assistance should be given out of the funds provided by the listeners themselves. Other speakers in the same cause were Messrs. H. B. Arthur, president of the United Listeners' Club; Mr. R. S. Neweomb, deputy-president of the Auckland British Israel Association; a representative of the crusade for social justice; Mr. White, president of the New Zealand Association of Radio Listeners; Mr. A. E. Robinson, secretary of the Auckland Farmers' Union; Mr. W. Hindman, and Mr. B. Dunningham, president of the B station Federation.