The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, September 23, 1944. CONTROL OF NEWS.

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1944, Page 4

The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, September 23, 1944. CONTROL OF NEWS.

Newspapers, like Micawber, are always looking for something to turnup. If things seem humdrum, colour is added for a, flavour. Newspaper owners in New Zealand are asking that censorship shall now virtually cease, but it goes without saying that war news will remain censored at the source’ till the end. Thereafter some restrictions will continue. In peace time every country has some degree of censorship. If it is not official, press pro-' prietaries, mostly wealthy, impose it unofficially. But Americans lately have begun propaganda in favour of a world-wide right for the exchange of news by agencies engaged in either gathering or distributing news, whether they are individual agencies or associated ones, and by no matter what means they work. It is contended that there should be no discrimination as to the sources of news, the distribution, or rates of charges, and that this right should be protected by an international contract or convention. At intcrAllied conferences this idea has been propagated by Americans, and it has now been endorsed by a resolution of Congress. • Nevertheless, hews agencies themselves usually have their own checks, and while playing up certain matters, t,hey have regularly excluded other interests. Consequently, a guarantee of absolute freedom to collect and distribute from every country would be no guarantee that the agencies would be quite unbiased and quite fair. Yet there is a sound reason for the American proposition. Before the war in all of the countries under dictatorship, news was officially censored as rigidly as in war time war news has been in all belligerent countries. The result was that the peoples of the dictatorship countries were (bulldozed into cpiite a false and ignorant state of mind. Had this not been so, it is doubtful if the war mongers could have carried on as they did when preparing for aggression. It is this aspect of the matter which doubtless explains the agitation of the Americans. Their own press is about as free as any, and sometimes runs to queer extremes. Nevertheless, the danger of false news, or concealment of news whidh amounts to falsification, is a very real one. The war-time censorships have illustrated a trend growing for a long time in almost every country, and that, is towards greater State control of the people. . It reached its apex in the dictator countries, but war-time controls have accentuated it in every country. Consequently a reaction against censorship is natural, and as regards countries under a dictatorship it is calculated to have a beneficial effect. But it remains to be seen to what extent it will be possible ito establish and maintain an international contract,