N.Z. CENSORSHIP

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13775, 19 October 1942, Page 4

N.Z. CENSORSHIP

MINISTER'S COMMENT

Reply to Mr Doidge

The Tauranga Meeting

Wellington. Oct. 10

Why the Director of Publicity controlled newspaper references to the Waikato strike and mention of the shortages or" commodities was explained to the House of Representatives last night by the Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan.

He was answering Mr F. . W. Doidge (National, Tauranga), who had stated that emphatic condemnation of the Waikato miners by Mr Semple at a large public meeting in Tauranga never appeared in the newspaper report, and that the editor explained that he was prohibited from mentioning that subject. Mr Doidge characterised this as a complete blackout. Mr Sullivan denied that the action taken by the Director of Publicity amounted to a blackout. He read the following confidential telegram sent by that officer to newspaper .editors: "To assist in localising serious coal dislocation, and to ensure the speediest return to full production, the assistance of the press is necessary to prevent an extension of the trouble. There must be no publication of reports of meetings, resolutions or statements in support of the unlawful strike, or any statements supporting or condemning the strikers, without reference to the Director of Publicity." Mr Doidge: It was the gag.

Mr Sullivan said it was a direction to editors that they must submit the question to the director in order to ensure that the trouble, which was already sufficiently bad in the Waikato, and was creating difficulty for the country, was not accentuated by publication of matter which would intensify the difficulty. It was not prohibition of publication, and a great deal of matter was published throughout the length and breadth of the country. There was nothing to prevent the editor from publishing the statements of the Minister of Transport. He had noticed that the criticism of censorship by the Newspaper Proprietors' .Association had been referred to with approval by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland. Reference had been made to the fact that newspapers were prohibited from publishing references to commodity shortages. , The Minister read the direction issued to the press,- declaring that this was necessary to prevent panic buying, which followed every reference to a scarcity, .whether correct or not. A certain group of grocery stores, which had a normal demand for 25 tons of sugar weekly, sold 25 tons in one day following press references to a shortage, and in the week following the entry of Japan into the war this group sold as much sugar in one morning as their normal sales for a week. The same quantities of sugar were available as in the previous year, but there were hoards in existence. However, the sugar position to-day had entirely changed, and there was a shortage in the country. Mr Sullivan finally stressed that whenever there was any reference to a shortage of any commodity the tendency of. the public was to buy to the limit of their capacity. A reference to censorship was also made by Mr Coates, a member of the War Cabinet. He said he believed that the question of censorship could with advantage be reconsidered altogether. It was always a matter of opinion as to how much it was wise to divulge, but the main point was to see that information that might be of advantage to the enemy did not get out. If there was doubt, he was sure the Prime Minister. Mr Fraser, was open-minded enough to make certain of what the complaints really were. He could not see that censorship became a matter of a no-confi-dence motion.

In view of the fact that the Bay of Plenty Times has been referred to in the House of Representatives we feel that the time has come for us to make some explanation. On September 15 the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) addressed a public meeting in Tauranga, and in the course of that address he gave voice to some remarks in which he hotly condemned some Huntly miners. This was quite naturally considered by us to be good "copy."* but shortly before going to press the following day we received a telegram from the Director of Publicity directing that here must be no publication of roports of meeting resolutions or statements in support of the unlawful strike or of any statement supporting or condemning the strikers without reference to the Director of Publicity. In view of this instruction we had no option but to "kill"

the story. There were many people at that meeting and naturally they were surprised when they read no reference to Mr Semple's remarks in the r.ress. Some of them went so far as to suggest that we were hand in glove with someone who was deliber-

ately attempting to suppress any condemnation of the striking miners. One of those who approached us for an explanation as to why the remarks of the Minister were not published was Mr F. W. Doidge, M.P., and in order to protect ourselves we felt quite justified in showing him the telegram which we had received from the Director of Publicity. If Mr Doidge chose to use that information in the House it is no concern of ours. It may be that we have left ourselves open to a charge of breach of confidence, but. in view of the circumstances, we feel that any such charge would be quite unwarranted. For the Minister of Supply to say that there was nothing to prevent us from publishing the statements of the Minister of Transport, when we received the telegram just before going to press, is hardly consistent. —Ed. The Times.