Australia

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1915, Page 5

Australia

THE RIGHT OF THE CENSOR.

SYDNEY PAPER HITS OUT FROM THE SHOULDER. ■ United Fbbii Association. (Received 8.15 a.m.) Sydney, January 22. The Herald, in a leader on the censors, after disclaiming any intention of an attack on Mr Pearce or any of his staff, goes into details of the administration and points out the need there is to get the Government and public into closer touch through the press, so that Australian aid ,to the Mother Country may be as full and free as possible. The writer says: "The duty of the Press is clear. It does not stand for irresponsible newsmongering, but unfortunately many persons insist it does so stand, and when clothed with authority they act towards the newspapers as if the latter were mischiefmakers. The Press during the war has been shorn of its deep, profound, and searching responsibility. It has cheerfully- accepted most of the restrictions which were necessary and right for dealing with the position. In Australia there is a disposition to treat the public as a child and the Press as its plaything. We get the cables censored in London and again censored in Australia, as if the fountain of authority in the war was here and not there. New Zealand, an island, publishes matter without fear which* is unavailable here. The censors in Australia and the Continent have been busy, and focus their own views, which have grown reciprocally narrow. War news is available in Melbourne, which the Sydney papers are not given an opportunity to use." The Herald demands consistency, and especially the public's right to judge between bad and good news, and concludes: "The public has done its duty by going about its business, refraining from panic, and responding to the call for men to fight, but they must be treated as of adult stature, and the Press as its watch-tower and bulwark cannot be ignored or suppressed except at a risk which no Government in its senses will dare take."