Evening star., 1946-02-17
|Stettinius Asks UN0
To Aid Campaign for
Information Freedom
By the Associated Press

LONDON, Feb. 16.-Edward R.
Stettinius, jr., today asked the
United Nations Commission on
Human Rights to draft resolution
on "the problem of freedom of in
formation" for submission to the
Economic and Social Council and
the United Nations for approval.
At the same time, the chief of the
American delegation handed Sec
retary General Trygve Lie COM
munications on the subject from
Hugh Baillie, president of the
United Press, Wilbur Forrest, chair
man of the Standing Committee on
World Freedom of Information of
the American Society of Newspaper
Editors, and Kent Cooper, executive
director of the Associated Press.
Mr.. Stettinius, giving the COM
munications to Mr.. Lie for trans
mission to the commission and the
Council, told the secretary general
he wished TO reaffirm the belief of
the United States that the Com
mission on Human Rights should
undertake, as promptly as possible
after it has been fully constituted,
a study of the problem of freedom
of information with a view to pre-
pairing draft recommendations, or
a draft convention thereon to be
submitted to the Economic and
Social Council and later to member
governments
High Hopes for World Order.
Mr.. Cooper, in telegram to Mr..
StettlniuS, said the open conduct
of the United Nations sessions now
concluding, permitting full and free
access to the news, raises high hopes
for the achievement of stable
world order based on world public
understanding and enlightenment. ~
Mr.. Cooper expressed disappoint-
ment that the United Nations or
ganization did not make as its first
order of business development OF
an effective program to assure that
news OF these deliberations, as well
as news everywhere, might be freely
distributed and published over the
world"
The right to know must be i'm
plemented by the right to print, by
full press freedom" Mr.. Cooper de-
clared.
This objective must not be a
selfish one to get news for our
selves. World understanding can be
achieved only if news flows freely
to all countries and may be freely
published in them"
For this, he said, "a vastly ex-
panded world communications sys-
tenn, making optimum use of the
new science of electronics," would
be necessary.
THE alternative is the use OF
communications once more tc
regiment human minds through
contests of debased use of propa-
ganda by governments, leading in
evitably to a disastrous military
conflict" Mr.. Cooper said.
Draft Resolution Offered.
Mr.. Raillie, in his telegram to Mr.
Stettmius, submitted a draft resolu.
ton to the United Nations confirm
ing the right of their people to be
fully and speedily informed through
press and radio of world events as
they occur day by day"
The resolution would provide
that:
l. All Sources of news, particu.
larly official sources, shall be COM
petitively open to all.
2. All transmission facilities shall
be competitively available to all.
3. There shall be a minimum oi
official regulation of the flow of news
itself
He said application of these
basic principles to the international
gathering and distribution of news
would remove the major obstruc-
tions which up to now have i'm
peded and checked the world wide
| flow of free information.
Mr.. Forrest in a letter to Mr.