TASK OF PRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 6

TASK OF PRESS

INCREASING RESPONSIBILITY DUTIES IN POST-WAR WORLD RUGBY, May 8. Sir Stafford Cripps, addressing the journalists of the House of Commons Press Gallery, said: "As the quantity of paper diminishes, and transport becomes more difficult at sea, the power and value of the Press Gallery increase, and more and more the press becomes the sole interpreter of Parliament to the country and people, and the quality and quantity of that interpretation becomes' more important. "I have had experience in other countries since the war began of the Press and censorship methods. In one of them the degree of censorship and control is vastly greater than in this country, and one had to flive for a period of time in such a country to appreciate the degree to which we have been able to maintain freedom of expression in our own country. I doubt whether there is another country in the world where one can have the freedom of Expression, either in Parliament or the press, which we enjoy." The Fate of Democracy Sir Stafford said people must be made to realise that the saving of democracy was something of essential value to them, and only the press could make people realise that the House of Commons was the vital centre of our whole democratic life. Democracy would live or die according to the way they conducted their parliamentary institutions. Much as we valued democratic in*titutions, he said, we must remember that we were living in a world where dynamic action and change were now complete, and we could hot afford to remain static. Nothing could be more fatal than to look back into the past as the sole criterion for the wisdom of our actions in the future. While their lives and customs were wisely rooted in democratic traditions, the branches must reach out into the future, and must adapt democratic methods to the needs of the newer times. They must be prepared to reorganise the machine of democracy as they were prepared to reorganise industrial machinery. Many useful adaptions had been made to meet war conditions, and some might be useful afterwards. , System of Government

Sir Stafford Cripps stressed the need that would exist in the post-war years for direct methods to meet the difficulties that would then confront the world.

"I believe that by that time we ought to have worked out a more efficient system than other forms of government," he" added. "I believe there are a great many people anxious to see democracy made as efficient a form of government as possible, because they believe that essentially it is the right form of government. In that task the presentation of our .activities by the press during difficult times will help us to preserve and strengthen the democracy upon which we rely."