CHECK ON NEWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1944, Page 6

CHECK ON NEWS

EDITORS PROTEST

Restoration Of Facilities In

Italy Desired

K.Z.P.A. and British Wireless j Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 17. i Editors of London, provincial and | Empire newspapers and news agencies, meeting in London, resolved to protest to the Secretary for War, Sir James Grigg, against the new conditions imposed on correspondents in the Anzio beachhead. It was. unanimously resolved to ask the Minister: (1) To restore immediately facilities for the transmission of messages by radio; (2) to specify the charges against correspondents, and state by whom and on what evi- ! dence these charges are made. The ; meeting further declared that the i imposition of censorship other than for security is contrary to the public | interest and should be removed forthwith. A correspondent with the Fifth Army says radio transmission facilities were withdrawn from the correspondents at the Anzio beachhead because the Army Group Command believed that, as a result of daily Press reports on the situation, there was last week an abrupt and unwarranted swing from optimism to pessimism. "Over-Pessimistic Reports" The Secretary for War, Mr. Stimson, according to a Washington message, stated to-day that reports from the Anzio beachhead had been over-pessimistic. In recent days the enemy had tried hard to outfight the beachhead forces, but had been unable to do so. The Allies had superiority in air, tanks, artillery and anti-tank guns. Mr. Stimson appealed for a more balanced view of the operation, and said on the main front the Allies held the initiative. A United States battalion of American-born Japanese had been fighting in the Cassino sector.

Asked to comment on the ban on the direct transmission of news dispatches from the beachhead, Mr. Stimson said General Wilson was the best judge of the situation and had full responsibility. Meanwhile, Mr. Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information, declared he was protesting to the Arm}-. "We fully realise the requirements of military security," he said, "but the public is entitled to a full and most rapid supply of news consistent therewith, and the public is certainly not getting much news from the beachhead." He added that Mr. Brendan Bracken, British Minister of Information. had doubtless already taken up the matter with the British military authorities.