FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25388, 10 January 1948, Page 7

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

ATTACK ON PRESENT RESTRICTIONS

LONDON, January 8. Mr R. A. Henderson, chairman of the Australian Associated Press, speaking to-day at a dinner at the Savoy Hotel given by Mr C. J. Chancellor, general manager of Reuter, for members of the board and senior members of the staff, said: “We are living in the twilight of democracy. That is why the freedom of the press is so important. Yet at this terrible crisis for democracy and its survival, you have restrictions imposed upon the newspapers under the guise of national necessity. “Those who impose the restrictions do not appreciate how great a disservice they are doing to the common good and the public interest—whether they impose restrictions upon the consumption of newsprint, upon the free travel of correspondents, or upon transmission facilities and communications. It is one of the real tragedies of a very tragic situation that those who have most to lose from any weakening of the democratic structure have been among the first to impose such restrictions.

“Never in the world’s history have a free press and the widest possible means for the dissemination of news been more necessary than now. I do not think it possible to justify any restrictions upon those freedoms. It is a tragedy that, passing through the present crisis, the British newspapers should find it impossible to secure the raw materials necessary to ensure real freedom of the press.”