CENSORSHIP CRITICISM

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 November 1940, Page 5

CENSORSHIP CRITICISM

NAMES OF BOMBED TOWNS. [BY CABLE. —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.} LONDON, November 28. “The Times,” reviewing the recent flood of criticism of the censorship from American correspondents in London, says:— “The British authorities have given the Americans unrivalled facilities. Doors have been open to them at which British journalists have knocked in vain. The Americans have had a series of highly private interviews with Ministers and other responsible personages, but they believe that since the blitzkrieg they have been suffering from a number of grievances. “First, they complain of the censor’s niggling alterations. Then they protest against the ruling forbidding the naming of bombed towns, .even after they have been announced by the Berlin radio. The censors are mostly following the rulings of higher officers, but in the past few days it has been these which have been most criticised. Everyone in Germany and most people in the south of England knew that Bristol, Birmingham, and Southampton had been bombed, but the names could not be given in print or- dispatches till last night after they had been announced by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

“It is not an accident that the Americans should in the past few days have criticised the British censorship and then painted the British position in unusually and unduly gloomy colours. Such criticisms as those of Mr. Drew Middleton, the correspondent of the Associated Press of America, in which he asserted that Britain was -nearing the end of hex- financial tether and alleged that she had not expanded her industrial output to the level of the totalitarian countries, is legitimate, but’a comparison of the British and French censorships is unfair, as the British censorship has no mandate to impose censorship on views. “Further, Mr. Middleton’s conclusion that Britain is experiencing her darkest days since Dunkirk . causes surprise this side of the Atlantic. These dispatches cannot have done much harm in America, but the British authorities should help the correspondents to send a fair and balanced picture. Less than the truth or-.- more than the truth only helps the enemy, who is ready to exploit any point for the sake of propaganda.” ' . ,