JAPANESE PRESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21854, 26 October 1945, Page 3

JAPANESE PRESS

FREEDOM ORDERED

U.S. DISSATISFACTION

NEW DIRECTIVES GIVEN TOKIO, Oct. 24. Supreme Allied Headquarters in Japan told Japanese editors to establish a free and independent press or make way for papers which will. Colonel K. R. Dyke, chief of the civil information and education section, charged the editors with failing to permit full and frank discussion on the war criminal problem and the position which the Imperial Household will occupy in a democratised Japan and also with having done practically nothing to explain the historic significance of General MacArthur’s recent directive for a free press. Colonel Dyke ordered the editors to explain the directive so that the people can understand and encourage them to use their new rights. He asserted that the people’s opinion on some subjects had been systematically ignored, while, in others, districted or under-played. Colonel Dyke claimed that despite the considerable progress made towards a free press and radio in recent months, there was still a remarkable similarity between the policies of the different papers on the same issue. Colonel Dyke outlined the following programme for the newspapers and the radio:— (1) Report domestic and foreign news fully and truthfully. (2) Explain adequately the aims and activities of the occupation forces. (3) Permit and encourage free discussion on all issues bearing on the welfare of the Japanese people.

(4) Provide all segments of responsible public opinion with free and equal access to channels of public

expression. Colonel Dyke referred to the almost complete absence of foreign news in the Japanese press and said this was hardly the way to prepare the Japanese people for their eventual entry into the community of nations.