The Press: Censorship, Pro & Con

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In Nürnberg, enterprising reporters had interviewed Hermann Göring and other Nazi defendants by relaying questions through defense attorneys. The war crimes tribunal last week told counsel to cut it out; the Russians had complained.

In Le Havre, biggest port of embarkation for homebound G.I.s, the U.S. Army port area commander demanded to look over all correspondents' stories. His reason: dispatches reporting friction between the French and the G.I.s had caused "embarrassment."

In Tokyo, General MacArthur talked about "unfettering" the Japanese press—but still kept it on a leash (see below).

Censorship was still news—and still impeding the news. In the U.S. the Office of Censorship was all gone but the archives; nobody was happier to see it go, insisted Director Byron Price, than he. Last week in his final report to Harry Truman, precise, silver-haired, ex-A.P.-man Price made two cogent points: 1) any wartime censorship must "hold to the single purpose" of keeping dangerous information from the enemy; 2) "no one who does not dislike censorship should ever be permitted to exercise censorship."

From Russia, where censorship is still in flower, came the usual rebuttal. What set N. Baltisky talking (in New Times) was "fabricated . . . so-called news" that the A.P. was sending from Poland.

Censorship is a necessary shield, wrote Baltisky, "in democratic countries, including Russia," against "all kinds of poisonous slander harmful to the cause of peace," and is justified "as long as influential newspapers or private owners" commit slander. Baltisky suggested a further extension: a world court to judge "internationally dangerous newspaper crimes" such as "a systematic urging toward war" and "political slander of any peace-loving state—that is, the spreading of knowingly false inventions. . . ."

Three days later, Moscow's three biggest dailies attacked the Turks as "cruel and inhuman oppressors" of Georgians in 10,000 miles of Turkey that the U.S.S.R. covets (see INTERNATIONAL).