Papers Defy Smith Ban

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30982, 11 February 1966, Page 11

Papers Defy Smith Ban

(N.Z.PA. Reuter—Copyright) SALISBURY, Feb. 10. Government reaction was awaited today after Rhodesian newspapers defied a Smith Government order preventing them showing they had been censored.

The newspapers face fines of up to f5OO or the editor two years’ imprisonment or both for contravening the new emergency regulations. The regulations, gazetted last Saturday, were announced in Parliament on Tuesday night. They forbid newspapers to show where they have been censored or to say that they have been subject to censorship. All Rhodesian newspapers have been censored since November 11, the day Rhodesia seized independence. The “Rhodesian Herald" — Salisbury’s only daily—today had a one inch and a quarter black space on the front page and a second blank space of similar size on an inside page. The “Bulawayo Chronicle,” the other Rhodesian daily, appeared with a four-inch blank space on its front page. Both also carried announcements that they had been subject to censorship.

Printing of both newspapers was after day-long discussions between their managements and the South African owners of both. Executives of the South African group flew up specially for the crisis. Under the new strict internal censorship regulations, Government censors are able to order any report changed in whole or in part, or even moved to another page. Informed sources said last night that Premier lan Smith would make an “important announcement” over the radio at 5 a.m. N.Z. time Friday. In London yesterday, the British Commonwealth Secretary, Mr Arthur Bottomley, said setting a deadline for the overthrow of the Rhodesian Government would be unrealistic. He told a Foreign Press Association luncheon that Britain’s African trouble shooter, Mr Malcolm Macdonald, was not carrying an ultimatum from Zambia to crush Rhodesia within a week. Mr Bottomley said sanctions would be decisive “sooner or later.” “We are confident that whatever petrol is getting into the country is not enough to enable the economy to survive,” he told a questioner.