The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1938. War In The Ether

Northern Advocate, 11 January 1938, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1938. War In The Ether

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper

SOME fifteen years ago., when broadcasting first excited general interest in Europe, people who took the new technique seriously, claimed it as a new means of consolidating peace

by making the peoples of Europe acquainted with each other, j True, broadcasting knows no bounds. But this very boundlessness ; can be, and is used, for the dissemination of programmes which j are. unpleasant, and in some cases, offensive, to the governments j of neighbouring countries. Moscow or the Spanish loyalists inter- j pret a given set of facts in a way to make all Fascists appear to be j wearing horns; while Rome, Berlin and the Spanish insurgents interpret the same facts so as to make it appear that all Russians« and all Spanish loyalists are breathing flames of Red chaos.

Too long has Britain been silent in the face of Italian provocation through the written and the/spoken word. An example is the Bari radio station which broadcasts almost daily in sixteen languages. Its libellous and abusive talks are specially intended to hold England up to scorn and ridicule in the Near .East, and thus, it would seem, to prepare to w r ay to Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean. So violent has the campaign become that Professor Vernon McKenzie, Director of the School of Journalism at the University of Washington, has asked if Britain _ is aware that the methods of propaganda usually associated with Wartime are being practised by Italy, and that Britain is the chief target of these attacks. He expressed amazement, that the British Government should have taken no steps to meet this output of poison gas, directed by a “friendly nation,” with the full support and financial assistance of its Government.

Until recently, the British Broadcasting Corporation withheld from tiny foreign propaganda broadcasts. Even on the shortwaves it limited its news-bulletins to the English language, although nearly every other short-wave station in Europe uses at least three languages. But for the proper effect on a foreign listener, he must be met in his own language. With this realisation, the 8.8. C. has commenced a service in Arabic, which has been described as “defensive broadcasting.” Major Tryon has announced that the news sent out “will be straight news, and not the sort of propaganda that comes from foreign countries and does them no credit.”

However, preliminary reports on reception indicate that it will be most difficult to catch up on the static, so subtle and persistent that it twists radio into a tool for drilling nationalistic propaganda into the thoughts of short-wave audiences. Walls of prejudice have been created already in the minds of the semiliterate Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs are said to prefer the Italian broadcasts. Tire reason for that is not far to seek. It is a weakness of human nature that the average individual finds more pleasure and satisfaction in listening to the presentation of his own point of view, or at least the things with which he himself agrees, however, coloured they may be.

Eadio lias brought vast possibilities for the propagation of falsehoods by' the insidious presentation of biased news. Last September, a convention was signed at Geneva whereby 25 countries pledged themselves to abstain from, and even prevent, all radio talks “likely to harm international relations by statements, the incorrectness of which is, or ought to be, known to the persons responsible for the broadcast.” Neither Italy nor Germany was a signatory.