Evening star., 1946-09-24
u. n. Committee Cites
Need for Pacts Givinq
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Promotion of broad international
agreements guaranteeing freedom
of information was urged as the top
priority job for the United Nations
Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization in committee report
to a national commission meeting
here today.
The National Commission on Ed
ucational, Scientific and Cultural
Cooperation, m Getting through
Thursday in the old War Manpower
Commission Building at 1778 Penn
sylvania avenue NV, is preparing
recommendations to guide United
States delegates at the first general
conference of UNESCO, scheduled
to be held in Paris in November.
The committee report, prepared
by group of consultants to the
State Department, urged that the
proposed freedom of information
agreements provide specifically for
freedom from censorship, of access
to news sources, of communication
from arbitrary and burdensome i'm
Hoctc calA ddOCOD, 41OiIl p11 W
listen to radio broadcasts of ones
choice and of motion picture ex-
hibition.
Must Deal Squarely.
mo freedom of information agree
ment," the report declared, can
amount to much unless it deals
squarely with censorship. The goal
here must be the complete elimina-
tion of peacetime political censor
ship of international traffic in in
formation"
Recognizing that its proposals
will not find universal acceptance"
Immediately, the committee said
that If attainment of the goal for
elimination of all peacetime censor
ship is delayed an intermediate OBJ
jective should be to assure that
wherever censorship is practiced it
should be open, not secret"
In general, the committee urged
that UNESCO itself avoid any SEM
blance of censorship through at
tempting to set itself up as a
judge of what are good motion
pictures or news reports. radio pro-
grams, magazines or books" for
guidance in its objective of pro-
noting the free flow of information
across national boundaries.
Room for Improvement.
1t asserted that certainly there
Is great room for improvement in
the product of the mass media, ="
but declared that UNESCO's most
immediate concern should be to
lower the barriers which obstruct
"the free flow of ideas by word
and image" without attempting to
exercise censorship on the ideas
themselves.
In the communications field, the
committee urged that UNESCO
should promote an increase in the
radio telegraph frequencies avail
able for international press COM
munications. further reduction in
international press telegraph rates,
and special airmail handling for
news materials
1t suggested that press matter,
newsreels, newspapers, transcript
tions, ETC., ''be put in a special clas-
sification of airmail which shall be
given priority over all regular air.
mail and shall be specially ex-
pedited at the point of origin, at
the terminus, and at all transfer
points en- route"
1t also called for reducing inter
national postal rates on newspapers,
magazines and books to the lowest
possible levels.
Leaders Consulted.
Edward w. Barrett, editorial direc-
tor of Newsweek, is chairman of
the committee preparing the report.
The committee consulted leaders in
the newspaper, motion picture, radio
and other affected industries in pre-
pairing its recommendations.
The report was submitted after a
series of round table discussions this
morning on education, mass COM