Press Reassured By Kennedy

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 7

Press Reassured By Kennedy

<Ai '.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copy rtQht) WASHINGTON, May 9. President Kennedy today assured American newspapers that his Administration contemplated no type of Government restriction on access to news.

Mr Kennedy gave his assurance in a conference with eight newspaper executives who came to the White House seeking to learn more about his plea for a form of .■-elf-censorship in view of the Communist threat to security. The President had made his proposal in a speech before the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association 10 days ago, asking the newspapers to “heed the duty of self-restraint” in a time of peril. After more than an hour with Mr Kennedy the newspaper executives told White House reporters that both the Government and the newspapers would continue to study Mr Kennedy's proposal and meet again in several months, the Associated Press reported.

The President of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and executive editor of the Dallas “Times Herald," Mr Eelix R. McKnight, said he did not believe that world events required the establishment of machinery to censor information that appeared in newspapers. Asked if he thought it necessary for newspapers themselves to set up some kind of censorship mechanism if the Government did not. Mr McKnight replied: “Not at this time.” Mr McKnight believed only “a declaration of national emergency or something of that kind” would necessitate the creation of machinery to screen news for security content. In a speech to the Detroit Press Club today the former

Vice-president. Mr Richard Nixon, criticised President Kennedy’s appeal. “The whole concept of a return to secrecy in peacetime demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the role of a free press as opposed to that of a controlled press,” he said. In his dealings with reporters he had found they would co-operate fully when they were dealt with honestly.