NEWS CENSORSHIP

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 119, 13 February 1941, Page 8

NEWS CENSORSHIP

Disadvantages Of Empire Press EQUALITY WITH 8.8. C. SOUGHT

LONDON, February 11

The disadvantages under which the Press of the Dominions suffered because messages were compulsorily censored was stressed by Major J. J. Astor at the annual meeting of the Empire Press Union. Censorship was inevitable, but it emphasized the need for all the official help possible. Major Astor asked for equal treatment of the 8.8. C. and Press, especially regarding censorship.

Mr. Irvine Douglas, manager of the Australian Associated Press in London, said that while the responsibility of Empire correspondents in London was probably never greater the difficulties and obstacles confronting them were also never greater. The censorship might show greater readiness to place itself in the position of the newspapers upon which it laid so heavy a hand. There was evidence that the censorship still had much to learn, but he was bound to admit that recently it has shown a greater tendency to listen to what those representing tlie Dominions said.

There were other exasperating difficulties, including tantalizing delays Jn cable transmissions, putting the Dominions many hours behind the news. Tlie British Government from the outbreak of the war took the view that it was most desirable that there should be no hiatus in the news from London. When the air raids began, however, there were most, serious gaps, with delay of as much as fifteen hours in the transmission of vital stories. He referred to unfair preference given to the 8.8. C. by certain Government Departments who seemed to regard the 8.8. C. as omnipotent and the Press as something of secondary importance. Another difficulty confronting some sections of the Empire Press was tlie exorbitant cable charges for Press messages from Egypt. Surely it was not too much to ask Egypt, which the Imperial Army had saved from invasion, tc reduce the charges to tlie Empire rate level.