PRESS TO BE ADMITTED

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23811, 3 December 1942, Page 4

PRESS TO BE ADMITTED

Production Council

Meetings

MINISTER TO BE INFORMED

The North Canterbury District Council of Primary Production decided yesterday to allow the press to attendits meetings and report its discussions. The council’s decision is to be forwarded to the Minister of Primary Production for War Purposes (the Hon. J. G. Barclay). Mr J. W. Earl said he had given the matter considerable thought, and had come to the conclusion that it was undesirable to exclude the newspapers from meetings of the council. Except as an obvious precaution in war time, censorship in any form was undesirable because it was contrary to the principles of freedom of thought, freedom of action, and freedom of the individual. A concession in one particular case usually led to further requests and they in turn became demands. He feared that this was only the thin edge of the wedge for further State interference and control of primary production. “The chairman of the meeting can at his discretion, always protect the interests of the producers, and the welfare of the State by the council going into committee on any particular problem or problems,” continued Mr Earl. "Should the council not be in committee and any matter be under discussion, which the chairman considers should then not be published, I am fully of the opinion that any request not to publish it, would be acceded to by the newspaper representatives. A final check is made in the newspaper offices themselves, where those in control decide whether or not any reports of .meetings are news and of public interest. “It is conceded that the standard of journalism in New Zealand is very high, and it is very doubtful indeed if anything has been published in the past which has been detrimental to the welfare of the State, or any State department, or even the producers themselves.”

The chairman (Mr R. T. McMillan) said the council had decided that it should admit the press. Later it had received a confidential letter on the subject from the Minister of Primary Production for War Purposes (the Hon. J. G. Barclay). The Minister then made a visit to Christchurch and asked for the press to be excluded from his meeting with the council, which had no option at the time. It was suggested at the meeting later that the council should approach Wellington for authority to allow the press to remain. That seemed to be the easiest way out of it.

Mr McMillan suggested that this should be done, and the council should refer to its decision to admit the press, to its desire for the fullest publicity for the work it undertook, and to the helpfulness of the press in the past. He added that all the primary production councils in the South Island were apparently much opposed to the exclusion of the press.

Mr A. H. Spratt said that matters could not be discussed properly in open council. At his suggestion the council went into committee.