THE MONOPOLY OF THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 8

THE MONOPOLY OF THE AIR

The reappointment of Professor Shelley as Director of the National Broadcasting Stations serves again to direct public attention to the abuses of the State wireless service which have grown up under political control. The Director cannot be held responsible for the improper use of a State department by Ministers of the Crown and presumably he has merely carried out the policy laid down by the Government. This, however, does not make the position regarding the improper use to which the broadcasting service is being put any more satisfactory from the point of view of the general public. There may be room for differences of opinion as to whether a State broadcasting service should be used for the discussion of controversial political issues.. There can be no doubt, however, that if political addresses are broadcast at all there should be full. opportunity for the free expression of all points of view. In taking the exclusive right to itself to broadcast on political matters the present Government has committed a graver offence against the liberties of the people than many of its own supporters realize. Quite apart from the fact—bad enough in itself—that it is improperly using a costly State service for party ends, it has taken a definite step in the direction of the curtailment of free speech. It has said, in effect, that Ministers of the Crown and their supporters may attack their opponents through the medium of this State service; they may attack farmers and business men or any other section of the community, and there must be no opportunity of reply. This is utterly wrong and is repugnant to all British ideas of fair play. If Ministers stopped to reflect on the. course they have embarked on they would perceive that their actions in other directions inevitably will be measured by their attitude on this question. Is it not reasonable to suggest that a Government which would openly act with such manifest unfairness in respect of broadcasting would be equally unjust in other matters not so plainly open to public inspection ? There is no doubt that a very large section of the public is now fully alive to the dangerous possibilities of this abuse of the State broadcasting service by Ministers. It is more than a mere political expedient. It is a deliberate suppression of free speech over the air, depriving the public of the right to hear through this medium of publicity anything but the views of the Government. In this way the dictator States keep the people in ignorance of the truth.