PRESS HAMPERED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 118, 21 May 1941, Page 8

PRESS HAMPERED

THE CENSORSHIP

NEEDLESS RESTRICTIONS

EXPERT ADVICE

NEEDED

(0.C.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Discussing the operation of the , censorship in the Dominion at the annual meeting of New Zealand Newspapers, Limited, today, the chairman, Sir Cecil Leys, gave it as his emphatic opinion that the Government should consider and recast its censorship policy. Sir Cecil said:—

"Last year I said it was the duty of the Press not only to help to maintain the public morale and stimulate the national effort, but if it fulfilled its duty to ventilate abuses from whatever cause they arose, and bring to light slackness on the part of those whose duty it is to work untiringly with the one object m mind, that through the marshalling of the country's resources and manpower all shall do their part ; the limit o± their ability to save our P^mpire from extinction. In this mission I am sorry to say that newspapers have been considerably hampered by a timid censorship which has become unnecessarily restrictive. 'Blanket' orders prohibiting the publication of this or that class of information, much of which should rightly be in the hands of the public, are being issued in increasing numbers until there is scarcely an item of war news which can be published without reference to the censor. No New Zealand newspaper would publish matter which would give information to the enemy not already in his possession or available to him from a dozen sources, and a grave disservice to the people of the Dominion is committed by a policy of keeping back essential' facts. A WRONG IMPRESSION. "One result of this policy is that an erroneous impression of our preparedness for defence can be created. The people of the Dominion have no proper appreciation of the true state of their | home defences, nor of how grave is ! the necessity for straining everj'' effort [to prepare for an emergency which may arise at any moment. The easy belief that all we need do is to carry on within the Dominion as if conditions were normal is thus fostered, and the enthusiasm of the many thousands who were never foolish enough to hold thi belief but were ready to do their utmost to put the country in a state of preparedness, I have reason to fear, is not being maintained. It could be rekindled by a vigorous campaign in which the real facts were stated, but these must not be told—they would be giving information to the enemy. Such a policy is utterly wrong. The censorship system is basically at fault. It gives to one man a mohoply.of -judgment as to what should be made known; there is no appeal from his decision as to what shall not be published. While it is necessary to have an authority to whom doubtful matters can be referred for a prompt decision, it , is just'as essential that that authority should have the assistance of experts to whom to appeal—outside the heads of the forces, whose invariable reaction is that as little as possible should become public about anything. AN ADVISORY BODY. "Upon at least two occasions newspapers have been told that they must not make investigations into circumstances surrounding occurrences of direct interest to the Dominion. Such instructions go beyond the censor's present powers, and from that to absolute control of the Press is no very great step. lam prohibited from making any reference to the individual matters which the censor has proscribed, .but in addition to restrictions upon publicity concerning New Zealand's efforts, they include a number of matters upon which the widest publicity has been given in other parts of the Empire. This is not a criticism of an individual, but of a system. No man, however able, painstaking, and industrious, should be expected to exercise such wide powers. The Government should, as an urgent duty, reconsider and recast its censorship policy, and require that, before the issue of orders prohibiting any reference to a subject without the approval of the censor, a limited body of men qualified to judge and advise upon the longterm results of such restrictions be consulted. In no small degree the debacle of France was due to the public being misled as to national security purely by suppression of facts. Only the Government has it in its power to remedy this matter, and I am positive that they have no more important duty in connection with the prosecution of New Zealand's war effort."