PRIME MINISTER AND THE PRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 110, 5 November 1937, Page 8

PRIME MINISTER AND THE PRESS

"No Prime Minister has ever had a fairer run from the newspapers. Does he want nothing but adulation?" This comment by Mr. Forbes on the Prime Minister's criticism of the newspapers is an effective answer to Mr. Savage's complaints. Mr. Forbes should be able to judge of these matters, for he himself was head of much-criticised Governments. But the Prime Minister not only resents the attitude of the Press. He goes further and quite unjustifiably, accuses the Press where it cannot fairly be charged. Last night he insinuated that the Press was responsible for the criticism of the Government's broadcasting policy. ''I know quite well what is causing all the bother," he said. "Mr. Scrimgeour is the director of a service which is striking at certain vested interests. The commercial service today is being fought by the newspapers which have their own interests to defend." There is no foundation for this charge. Certainly the commercialising of broadcasting has been opposed and for good reasons which have been given. The Prime Minister may not agree with those reasons, but he cannot dismiss the arguments against commercial broadcasting as actuated by nothing but self-interest when the British Broadcasting Corporation and a British Commission have disapproved radio advertising. The Prime Minister not only makes this unfounded assertion but continues to repeat allegations of Press unfairness. He said last night that the news service of the newspapers was one-sided. I open the papers time after time and Bee Ministers of the Crown playing a very bad second or third to ordinary rank-and-file members of the Opposition and that is what they call the freedom of the Press. Well, we have got to get an alternative service, and they can rest assured that we will not go down without a fight. The man on the newspaper is not paid to write the principles of the Sermon on the Mount; he is paid to write the policy of the newspaper. To the last part of this v statement we prefer to make no reply except this, that the implied allegation of moral dishonesty is a quite unworthy attack upon journalists whose code of conduct is entitled to the respect even of opponents. The statement that Ministers are not fairly treated can be disproved by any unprejudiced reader of the Press. We apply to the statements and speeches of Labour Ministers exactly the same principles that we have applied to Ministers of other Governments. A Minister's statement receives the space and prominence that its importance merits, plus a full allowance for the importance of the position— for the fact that the speech or statement is not merely the utterance of an individual but of a Minister who speaks for the Government of the day. This standard we shall continue to apply, without regard to praise or criticism; and we shall continue also to express with fairness and frankness our own opinion of the policy and actions of the Government.