ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY

Evening Star, Issue 25172, 11 May 1944, Page 9

ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS BELONGS TO THE WHOLE OF THE PEOPLE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, May 9. " Freedom of the Press is 'a meaningless phrase unless there is full appreciation of the fact that without it democracy could not survive," said Mr R. A. Henderson, the president, speaking at the half-yearly conference of the Australian Newspaper Proprietors' Association to-day. "We should seek every opportunity," he added', "to make it clear that freedom of speech and expression is not the particular prerogative of newspaper proprietors, as the term ' liberty of the Press ' might cause some unthinking people to conclude. It is the possession of the whole of the people" Declaring that the only justification for the imposition of a censorship was national security and the prosecution of the war, Mr Henderson said: " Some recent trends in war-time administration have shown that there is very real justification for the fear that in the process of gearing the nation to meet the needs of the world war people are being harnessed to the very things, in the loss of liberty, that they are righting to destroy. " Regardless of political affiliations, there is an obligation on the whole of the Press to record the happenings of the day and expose fearlessly excesses in administration whenever they occur. If the censorship prevents that, then I suggest there is an obligation upon us to resist the censorship. If the people permit a dictatorial 'bureaucracy permanently to maintain its grip on this country it is certain that sooner or )later the newspapers will be forced to publish what the Administration desires and suppress what it dislikes. In consequence of that the people will have lost their main forum for the exposure of injustice and the redress of grievances." • Mr Henderson suggested that the newspapers should make the proposed changes in th© Australian Constitution and the present censorship conflict the starting point of a campaign to explain to the people what liberty of the Press meant and what were the dangers to their own liberties inherent in any attack upon it.