Federal Government Move to Curb Power Of Australian Press

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27043, 30 March 1949, Page 5

Federal Government Move to Curb Power Of Australian Press

From C. R. Mentiplay ' New Zealand Press Association—Special Correspondent Rec. 9.36 p.m. SYDNEY, Mar. 29. Political correspondents representing a wide range of views interpret recent happenings as indicating that the Federal Government, or an influential section of it, is strongly in favour of curbing the power of the Australian press. Whether this will take the form of a Bill limiting political reporting by the institution of some form of censorship is not known, but it is claimed that certain sections of the Defence Act could be interpreted as giving the Government control over the press in certain fields of news. When asked in the House of Representatives whether the Government was considering instituting a press inquiry on the lines of that recently conducted in England, the Minister of Information, Mr A. A. Calwell, replied that the Government would consider the matter when the findings of the English inquiry came to hand. He added that the suggestions made by the Opposition that the findings were favourable to the British press were, in his opinion, “ so much paper talk.”

When asked directly whether the Federal Government contemplated the introduction of press-controlling legislation such as was recently passed in Fiji, the Prime Minister, Mr Chifley. would not give a direct re ftecently Mr Calwell demonstrated hostility in the House of Representatives to a Sydney newspaper which raised public subscriptions to assist Mrs Annie O'Keeffe to contest his order to deport her and her children. Subsequently, the Minister of Commerce, Mr R. T. Pollard, complained about the refusal of a Melbourne newspaper to publish a letter of his which the paper did not receive until the following day. He went so far as to issue a directive that in future he would not be at home to press representatives. His action followed that of Mr Calwell two years ago when all but a handful of newspapers were crossed off the lists of those receiving ministerial statements. Newspaper reporters have become hardened to treatment such as this, but even they were surprised when in Canberra a Federal magistrate, Mr H. Isles, in convicting a journalist of being a party to an offence against the secrecy provisions, said it was essential for journalists “ not only to get the truth and deal adequately with the matter they received for publication, but to see it was properly authenticated and authorised.” Canberra reporters were further startled last week when some of them were questioned by a security officer about the sources of their reports concerning the system of standard markings for exports. The Acting Attorney-general, Mr N. E. McKenna, was confused at the resulting publicity and at first denied instituting the inquiry. Later he said he did not discuss the investigations while they were in progress. . Veterans of the press galleries are resigned to the fact that Labour is not alone in its hatred of the press, and that the State Governments of Mr J T. Lang and Sir Bertram Stevens (New South Wales), and the Federal regime of Mr R. G. Menzies all had their brushes with newspapemen.