PRESS SERVICE ATTACKED

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24768, 8 January 1946, Page 5

PRESS SERVICE ATTACKED

NEWS “CONDITIONED” IN LONDON

AMERICAN ALLEGATIONS DENIED (NJZ Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, January 6. The United States Department pf State publishes to-day a report on tno post-war international information programme in which an attack is made on Reuter’s news service. The report which was compiled by Professor Arthur MacMahdn, of Columbia University. quotes a statement that American collected by American news services tends to go to London, where it is “conditioned” by British agencies such as Reuter’s before transmission throughout the Empire. Professor MacMahon. in his report, said that although R-euter’s denied receiving any Government subsidy intimations continued to come to the contrary. Hq quoted a letter from the United States Embassy in Mexico City stating that “El Universal” was receiving Reuter’s service for practically nothing. . Professor MacMahon quoted a letter from the United States Minister to Australia (Mr Nelson Johnson), dated October 13. 1944, which stated: “We have no news service comparable with Reuter’s, and not one that enjoys the world wide communication facilities that Reuter’s possesses. The result is that to a very large extent, the news from the United States as collected by American news services, tends to go first to London, where the most important consumer lives, and is thence transmitted throughout the Empire, conditioned by such processes of selection and manipulation as British news agents such as Reuter’s give it.”

U.S. Editors Quoted Professor MacMahon quoted a report of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Freedom of the Press Committee. to the effect that a leading Reuter’s executive, in conversation in London early in 1945. admitted that Reuter’s, in competition, would sell its services at cost price, or less in some cases, notably in France and Belgium, where the newly liberated papers could not, for the time being, pay the costs.

Professor MacMahon claimed that Reuter’s had advantage in certain

places in the arrangements for internal distribution. For example, in India Reuter’s possessed the only teletype news service in the country and an American news agency was told that additional facilities were not Available.

“One of the major developments helping Reuter’s is the powerful shortwave transmitters at Rugby,” states the report. “Through these modern facilities Reuter’s now literally sprays the world with its news files.”

Reuter’s Reply Reuter’s general manager in London (Mr C. J. Chancellor), in his reply, says: “By extracts from official correspondence and innuendoes. Professor MacMahon leaves the reader with the impression: “(1) that Reuter’s, in some special way, is associated with the British Government; “(2) that it receives special privileges. and or. assistance from the Government which is not available to other news agencies. “(3) that as a result of this connexion it “conditions’ its news to favour British interests., “This is not true. It is known, not to be true by all who have any elementary knowledge of the subject dealt with by the memorandum and by all who have worked with Reuter’s hi Britain and abroad.” Reuter’s was owned and operated by British newspapers, just as the Associated Press of America was’ owned and operated by the United States newspapers, said Mr Chancellor. Reuter’s was specifically protected by its charter of incorporation guaranteeing 4t complete independence from Government control and from political interests. The Mexico City newspaper which Professor*MacMahon said was buying Reuter’s service for “damn near nothing” had been paying 618 American dollars monthly for it since December, 1943. Statement “Dishonest” Concerning Professor MacMahon’a allegation that Reuter’s teletype service in India was exclusive, Mr Chancellor described the statement as “manifestly dishonest, giving a false and unfair impression.” He said that Reuter’s had operated in India for 70 years and the American news agencies had not operated there seriously until the recent war. Reuter’s had no special terms or exclusive right, but owing to a shortage of lines and equipment had a temporary fleeting advantage. Mr Chancellor, replying to the alley gation that- the news collected by American agencies tends to go to London, where it is “conditioned” before transmission to the Empire, quotes a statement by the chairman of the Australian Associated Press (Mr R. A. Henderson), who declared that Mr Nelson Johnson’s statement, so far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned, is demonstrably .false. Mr Henderson added that the Australian Associated Press, with one exception, services eVery metropolitan provincial newspaper an Australia and New Zealand with overseas news and never reported or sought to report American news from London.

Mr Chancellor similarly quotes Mr Sisson Cooper, chairman of the South African Press Association, who said that any suggestion that South African newspapers would be content with or tolerate manipulated news from America was a reflection on their integrity, which they resented.