RADIO IN WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 7, 9 January 1943, Page 6

RADIO IN WAR

8.8.C. AND RIVALS

CO-OPERATION WITH PRESS

(O.C) WELLINGTON, this day. "We have definite evidence,, the I source of which I cannot of course 'reveal, that our broadcasts to the enemy and enemy-occupied countries are reaching a wide audience," said Mr. N. C. Tritton. an official of the British Broadcasting Corporation at present in Wellington, in an interview last night. "The 8.8.C. has from the first tried to maintain the integrity of its news and to gain a reputation for telling the truth and in this it seems to have succeeded." Questioned as to the relations between the 8.8.C. and the Press in Britain, Mr. Tritton said that in his view it was good. "I feel," he said, "that it is now resognised that the Press and radio are not competitive, but are supplementary means of supplying news to the public." The advent of radio had brought an increase of circulation to the newspapers by making people more news conscious. "The 8.8.C, I can definitely state, has no preferential news releases, but with 107 news bulletins a day, the news goes out on one or other of them a very short time after its reception by the Corporation's news editors," he continued. "There is one point in this connection that should not be overlooked. The 8.8.C. must not be behind Berlin or Rome in its announcement of important news. The only delay in dissemination must be that necessary for the establishment of the undoubted truth of the item. Berlin and Rome are accustomed frequently to ascribe neutral or obscure sources to their news items. The 8.8.C. endeavours to make its listeners realise that the news.as given is what the 8.8.C. has" received itself, and which it is prepared to accept as true." Asked whether the 8.8.C. was extensively listened to in the United States, Mr. Tritton said that it was. In the earlier days of the war Americans listened extensively to' Berlin and Rome, as well as London. Shortly before the United States entered the war the 8.8.C. had definitely, established supremacy in the North American ether. Since then American listening to the 8.8.C. had increased still further.