FRANCE: Decree

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The Paris press has long been the sewer system of world journalism. Few are the Parisian newsmen who cannot be bought, rare is the newspaper unwilling to be "subsidized." Not only does the French Government, which always maintains a secret fund, pass out generous pay checks to writers and editors, but foreign Governments also contribute. During the Ethiopian crisis of 1935 the Italian Government bought a few editorial pages. The way some prominent Paris newspapers have handled their German "news" recently suggests that slush funds from the Third Reich are also being passed around. In pot & kettle fashion, Leftist editors have cried that the Rightist press lived on funds from Germany and Italy, while Rightist editors pictured the Leftist press getting gold from Moscow.

Last week Premier Edouard Daladier struck terror into the hearts of foreign-subsidized journalists of both Left and Right. Using his wide decree powers, the Premier's Government published a law which: 1) prohibited defamation or slander promoting hatred "against any group of persons belonging to any particular race or religion"—i.e., against the Jews, a specialty of the Reich-subsidized press; 2) made it unlawful to receive from foreign countries funds for "antinational propaganda"; 3) provided that any funds received for publicity campaigns, directly or indirectly, must be reported in eight days.

Contending that the press decrees did not "in any respect alter the fundamental notion of liberty," the Daladier Government insisted that the legislation was necessary to "prevent certain campaigns of suspicious origin tending to weaken the morale of the nation."

First to feel the decrees were three frankly Nazi papers in Alsace, which immediately ceased publication. Paris news-organs which have been printing favorable German "news" lately are Le Matin, Le Journal, La Liberte, Le Jour, Gringoire. Principal anti-Semitic newspapers affected are Je Suis Partout and L'Action Fran-faise.

Urbane Parisians, who have long 'done most of their newspaper reading between the lines, suspected last week that the Rome-Berlin newspapers would be made to behave rather than be suppressed, but that before long the Rightist Premier may suppress outright the Communist dailies L'Humanite and Ce Soir.