THE CENSORSHIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17099, 23 February 1916, Page 6

THE CENSORSHIP.

Ma Ashme.vd Bartlett's comments on the censorship in Australia are given point by the story we print from our , Sydney correspondent of the disgraceful riot in that city last week. No report of that astounding performance reached New Zealand by cable, the censor, no doubt, imagining his duty to include its suppression. Apparently the conditions in the military camp at Liverpool had been rapidly going from had to worse, and it is impossible to believe that such a pass could have bceen reached if the Australian public had' been kept informed by the newspapers.. The necessity for proper censorship in war time admits of no argument. There is a great deal of information, including much that is available in newspaper offices, which could be published only at- the risk of supplying the enemy with news lie might use to our disadvantage. No respectable newspaper and no decent journalist wants to print items of that descrip-, tion. The Press is as anxious as the Government to observe every necessary precaution, and, if we may say it. the newspapers have given and' are giving the authorities yaluahle help in most of the affairs of the war. But we are entitled to protest against absurd restrictions, against the'withholding or suppression of news that could be of no possible use to the enemy and to which the newspapers and their readers have every right. \i happenings like the riot in Sydney are to bo smothered by the cable censor while the Australian journals are full of the accounts, then the censorship is conducted without method' or reason. The question is of very great importance, because a Press that is muzzled without the gravest reason is injured in its character and robbed of part of its public usefulness. The newspapers fill .such a. large place in the life of the community that it would be nothing i short, of a calamity if public confidence in them as recorders' of important daily events should be shaken. The needless suppression of occurrences, or their suppression merely because they are unpleasant, ran only make the public, apprehensive. If people get the impression that happenings like the Sydney riot, for example, are considered by the censor fit subjects for 6ecrecy, they must become nervous lest

even worse news is being kept back. Probably a stupid censorship in Australia contributed to the growth of disorder in the Liverpool camp. Certainly the suppression of the cabled report, by which nothing was gained except, delay, seems to require a lot of explanation.