Agency’s Facts

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30277, 1 November 1963, Page 7

Agency’s Facts

("■Z. Pnn Association) WELLINGTON, Oct 30. The basic aim of Reuters was simply defined, it was the documentation o f facts, said the general manager of Reuters, „ r r M P era W Long, in Wellington tonight.

Stend far “ !"* * people everywhere m the worhd to “happening in the world. We have no other Purpose,” he said. Mr Long was speaking at • dinner tendered to him and to two other Reuter executes, Mr j. L. Burgess, chairman of directors, and Mr D vhyp manager for Southeast Asia and Japan by the of the New Zeala'^?„Press Association. Ltd. We are conscious that in carrying out this task we are •Iso providing the basis on rl ‘sh P®opde can have at -east a rudimentary understanding of one another. In the world, as it now exists, we are conscious at the immensity and of the vital imP»rtance of this task." said Mr Long. “We must also bear in mind another thing. We are not and do not set out to be recording angels. But all of us who work in the press have a sensfcof detachment from events which is hard for other people to understand,” he said.

“It is essential that this sense of detachment be preserved in reporting events in which passions run high. In Reuters we never cease to urge this detachment on. our correspondents, and we believe in all modesty that our success in this direction is considerable.

“We set out to free our minds from all prejudice of whatever nature and whatever origin and just to say what happens. This is what the newspapers of New Zealand in common with much of the rest of the world expect from us and it is a task which we are proud to undertake,” said Mr Long. “It demands, like liberty, of which it is an expression, eternal vigilance and this we are ready to bring to it. Accuracy and objectivity are habits of mind which demand a considerable discipline from the individual correspondent.

“In his work he has no right to any opinion, no matter what opinions he as a private person might hold. As a Reuter correspondent he is anonymous and anony-