Evening star., 1941-12-01
Free Press an Issue
In Every Emergency
In Nation S History
Central Censorship
At Present Applies
Only to News Sources
By w. b. RAGSDALE.
Wide World News.

Although half a dozen publicity
services in key defense spots give
the Government the biggest poten-
tial weapon of censorship it has
held in any war, news still flows
out of Washington virtually free Of
impediment.
Such censorship as exists sur
rounds the sources of news No
news writer is compelled TO submit
to censor anything he writes.
He is free to write anything he can
get
But certain handicaps have been
set up to prevent him from getting
information which. if printed,
might slow down or interfere with
the defense effort. or might put
into the hands of Axis powers mill
tary information OF value
To get past these handicaps, the
news writer often agrees that the
story he writes may be looked over
by 4 Navy or Army press relations
man. The trade is that if the Army
or Navy will give the reporter
access to information which could
not be obtained otherwise. the re-
porter will agree that the Army
and Navy may make certain that,
consciously or unconsciously. the
writer does not disclose military
secrets in his story
Operation Voluntary.
This whole operation is voluntary
on the part OF the reporter. 1t
holds true to greater or lesser
degree, depending upon the press
relations man with whom he is
dealing and upon his own standing
as newspaperman who can be
depended on. How close his story
comes to real military or naval
policy or secrets has much TO do
with the ease with which he gets
access to the information he wants.
Outside this sphere. his path TO
other types Of news sources in Wash
ington is fairly clear. He can reach
a member OF the House or Senate
at any time He gets ut depart
mental ofiicisls usually through
press relations men who are more
or less helpful, according to their
own desires and capacity. Or he
goes directly to officials whom he
knows we'll
The question. here again. is not
whether he shall write what he gets.
or the manner in which he shall
write, but whether the door to the
source Of information shall be open
or closed And often this depends
upon the individual press relations
man Some think OF their job as one
OF helping the reporter; others re-
gard themselves as the guardian OF
their departments reputation But
this is a problem. not OF censorship
but OF defining the duties of a press
relations man
Disputes over censorship and free
dom Of the press have crept into
every national emergency. In the
early days of American history, be-
fore the art Of objective reporting
OF facts had been developed, when
every news story was flaming with
the bias and prejudices Of its writer
and was In that sense an editorial,
/ these disputes dealt more with edi-
! torial policies than with the censor
ship and printing Of actual news.
Edwin NJ. Stanton, Iincoln's
Secretary Of War, inaugurated press
censorship during the Civil War He
took over censorship Of both the
military and civilian telegraph sys-
TENS. named Col Z. s. Stanford
president OF the American Telegraph
Co. military supervisor Of kilograms
ordered careless censors to be put
in Jail.
This tightening OF his control oc-
CURED after the House Judiciary
Committee had found that early
censors lacked both care and judg
ment in the exercise of their duties
Important news had slipped through
Military informa tion was issued Al