Freedom of the Press

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 93, 21 April 1942, Page 5

Freedom of the Press

NEW YORK, April 18. The Director of War Prbduction, Mr. Donald Nelson, in a speech to-day to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, told editors that a free press was one of the chief things for which Americans were lighting, oecause they new that a free and alert press would help them to defend all their liberties. He added: “The press has the responsibility of giving a clear picture of the situation and of putting the good of tho whole country ahead of any per- ( sonal, partisan interest, thereby presenting an undistorted picture.” Mr. Archibald Alac.Leish, Director of Office of Facts and Figures, accused a minority of the American press of engaging in defeatist propaganda. He appealed to the majority to live up to their responsibilities by taking a definite stand against defeatists. Mr. MacLeish added that a minority was disseminating propaganda designed, first, to divide the American people from the British and Russian peoples; secondly, to inspire a demand for a purely defensive war and a negotiated peace; and, thirdly, to inflame race against race or class against class. Mr. MacLeish urged th#,t the press should police itself against the danger of treason in its own ranks, among its own members.