The Hemisphere: Declaration of War

• Share

Members of the Inter-American Press Association:

WE ARE AT WAR!

It is a war for survival of the freedoms of the people of the Americas!

Let no one belittle this after what has happened in Cuba, and alter evidence of what the government of Cuba is trying to do throughout Latin America.

In such dramatic fashion, the I.A.P.A.'s Freedom of the Press Committee last week began its report to the association's annual convention. Meeting in Manhattan, 250 delegates from across the hemisphere examined complaints of violation of press freedom, nation by nation. The newsmen found faint stirrings of editorial liberty in the Dominican Republic following the assassination of Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. They noted the arrest and brief jailing of TIME'S Chile Correspondent Mario Planet for two stories (TIME. June 23. Aug. 25) deemed disturbing to Chile's tranquillity. Cuba, Paraguay and Haiti were listed as "countries where there is no freedom of the press"—but the most alarming of these was clearly Cuba.

Detailing the Plans. "Today in the island, there is not the slightest resemblance to free thought or expression in the press, radio and television," said the I.A.P.A. report, and went on to condemn Castro's attempts to subvert the free press of other nations. At this point, the New York Times, whose Cuban policy is strongly influenced by Editorial Board Member Herbert Matthews, Castro's most powerful U.S. apologist, accused the I.A.P.A. of being "driven from journalism into politics as it did its best to bring about the downfall of the Castro government . . ." Jules Dubois. chairman of the I.A.P.A. Press Freedom committee, reminded Matthews that the I.A.P.A. had fought equally hard against Dictator Juan Perón of Argentina. Marcos Pérez Jiménez of Venezuela, and Fulgencio Batista of Cuba. Matthews appeared before the convention in an attempt to explain himself. "We are not supporting [ Castro ], we are opposing him." said Matthews. "We have a different concept of the historic phenomenon taking place in Cuba than most of you have."

Preferring to stick to its own concept, the I.A.P.A. convention voted unanimously to condemn the "conspiracy directed by Cuba to subvert and lead to the seizure of the press of the Americas by the Communists.'' and asked the 21-nation Organization of American States "to adopt all corrective measures in its charter." The I.A.P.A. elected as its new president Andrew Heiskell, board chairman of Time Inc.