State-controlled Press Impossible

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 8, 10 January 1936, Page 4

State-controlled Press Impossible

AMERICAN’S OPINION “There is no such tiling and can be no such thing as Government control ot' nowspapers. ’ ’ Thus Mr.’ William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful newspaper proprietors,in the world, giving his idea of “Government Control of Newspapers,” quoted by Newsdom, New York.

Mr. Hear3t says: “There may be and there is Government control of publications, including daily papers. But daily papers cease to be newspapers as soon as they come under Government control. “Please observe Germany, Russia and • Italy, and all nations where Governments control the daily press. Papers in such countries print only what the Government wants them to print. If an editor prints anything which the Government does not approve, he goes to gaoi, and the paper is compelled to suspend publication. “When I was last in England I met an old friend who was London correspondent for what had once been a great. German newspaper. He had been relieved of the post and was going back to Germany. He said: ‘I have not done anything, but I cannot send any news, from London. My editor says he is not.allowed to print any more news from or about England excepting what the .'German Government gives him to print. ’ “In Russia the same conditions prevail in more aggravated form. “Good government in a democracy depends „pon the enlightenment of the electorate. They must have the right to read not merely one newspaper, but many newspapers, and get all the facts and shades of opinion. “Free speech and freo publication the the cornerstones of democracy—the keystones of liberty.

“When the Government controls the press, the people no longer get true accounts of what their Government is doing,'and the successive steps to tyranny come quickly and surely.”