THE PRESS THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1976. Mutual admiration or news?

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 16

THE PRESS THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1976. Mutual admiration or news?

The concepts of press freedom and of the free flow of information between States are among the most cherished ideas developed by Western Europe. Both have come under pressure in many of the newer countries of the “Third World indeed, one of the most accurate tests of the degree of freedom permitted by a particular political system is to examine its attitude to the free flow of information.

A growing number of countries in Africa. Asia, and Latin America have joined the Communist States in making their newspapers no more than a branch of the Ministry of Information Among the most tragic examples of the spread of the cult of “ official information ” is India, where all newspapers and broadcasting are now under complete censorship. When the Indian High Court ruled recently that the censorship was “a mask of suffocation and strangulation ” the Government’s censors promptly prohibited publication of the judgment. According to reports reaching Britain, the machinery of censorship has gone beyond suppression of all information unfavourable to the Government. India's Government nowattempts indoctrination and, like the Nazis in Germany, or the rulers of some Communist States. the censors deliberately manufacture false and misleading stories.

India's experience is especially tragic because, until recently, it enjoyed a free, responsible, and critical press. India now is a leader among a group of States which call themselves “ nonaligned” and which are planning to form their own international news agency The proposal has been endorsed bv meetings in Tunisia and in India and will be discussed by heads of State at a meeting of “ non-aligned ” countries in Sri Lanka next month. The conference is discussed in an article on this page today; the label of “ non-aligned ” which these countries give themselves sits curiously on a group which includes Cuba. Uganda, and representatives of the Palestinian terrorists.

A spokesman for the Indian Prime Minister (Mrs Gandhi) complained, in an Indian Government “ hand-out ” this month, that India was poorly served by the news agencies and newspapers of the Western world. India, he said, received 180.000 words of news each day from the rest of the world; in return, the agencies sent out only 1500 words of news about India. The complaint, from a country which has expelled or discouraged almost all representatives

of Western newspapers and broadcasting systems, would be laughable if it did not display a tragic misunderstanding about the functions of international news services.

The countries where independent journalists may travel freely and ask questions without fear are growing fewer. India is not among them; nor are most of the other States in the “ non-aligned ” world, including the host country for the conference, Sri Lanka. Egypt, another advocate of the “ non-aligned ” news service, also tightened its censorship recently. When a Cairo newspaper printed a statement that the Egyptian Government “ never interferes ” with newspaper editors, Egyptian journalists told foreign colleagues that the remark had been published by mistake. It was intended strictly for foreign consumption. Third World countries that believe they are misrepresented or ignored by Reuters, Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, United Press International, and other independent services, usually have only themselves to blame. No journalist of integrity wants to write about a country which permits “ good news only ” to be transmitted abroad. The independent agencies are not perfect: but because there are several, in competition, there is a good chance that all important points of view will be heeded, at least bv some of them.

If the idea of a Third World news agency is to succeed, it must be prepared to match the present agencies on the same terms of independence. Perhaps it could give an emphasis to news that might otherwise be neglected But in the shape proposed so far and discussed at the preliminary conference in India this month, the agency would be no more than a machine to pool the propaganda services of the Governments it served. Mrs Gandhi has said, “We want to hear Africans on events in Africa That formula may sound admirable, but it could easily be the formula for a mutual admiration society, not for a news service.

The world has governmentdominated news services now, including the New China News Agency, Antara of Indonesia, and a Middle East News Agency. Some of their reports are distributed and printed in the W’est because no other sources of information about their countries are permitted. None has earned any respect for its independence. So far, the Third World news agency proposal is no better.