Evening star., 1947-12-18
Writer Finds Austria
Losing Confidence in
u. ). News Broadcasts
By Helene Huntington Smith

VIENNA (By air maid The Aus
trian government, through its Min
istry of Transport and Communica-
tions, has requested the Allied Com
mission for Austria for a return OF
all broadcasting facilities to Aus
trian management. The obvious
reason for this request-of which the
Allied authorities take a dim view
is national pride and desire for
freedom from outside influences
But there is another reason. Some
Austrians at least dislike being
caught in the crossfire of the cold
war between Russia and the United
States Rightly or wrongly, they
have lost confidence in American
impartiality in the presentation of
news.
Under the present arrangement
the British, French and Americans
each control three German-language
broadcasting stations in their re-
spective zones. The American con-
trolled Red, White, Red network
(named after the Austrian national
colors) is operated by the Informa-
ton Services branch of the Military
Government, with stations at
Vienna, Linz and Salzburg. 1t Of
fers lively American-style programs
and some six news broadcasts a
day, which sound impartial enough
to an American ear. and there Is
no doubt of its success with a large
section Of the Austrian public. In
a recent public opinion poll taken
by ISB In the American zone it
came off as the most popular Of all
the radio offerings.
Reds Lack Network.
The Soviets ostensibly have no
network, but actually they control
Stations WIEN I and WIEN II
which formerly belonged to Ravag,
the prewar Austrian Broadcasting
Co. These stations are the best
broadcasting facilities in Austria
and. though nominally run by the
Austrian government, they are both
in the Russian zone of Vienna and
are operated under Soviet CEN
sorship which has frightened no
ticeably in recent months. More
and more kinds of scripts have had
to be submitted to the Russian
censor.
Up to three months ago, the Rus
SLAMS permitted a surprisingly lib
eral arrangement whereby their sta
tions broadcast daily excerpts from
Vienna newspapers-the excerpts
being freely chosen by the editors
themselves But that was too good
to last. With the tntensifying Of
the cold war, the Russians started
cutting out distasteful utterances,
notably those of the Socialist news
paper Arbeiter Zeitung. So the
Austrian directors dropped the
feature.
The Americans don't want to hand
over their network to 4 centralized
Austrian hookup as long as there
is danger Of the whole show coming
under Russian domina ton like the
Ravag stations in Vienna. The
Austrians may be guilty Of wishful
thinking but they still want to try
1t, and their reasons are sye-open-
ing. The word propaganda" has
always been distasteful to Amer
leans because Of its implications of
partisansh1p and distortion. There
fore 1t is q bit Of q shock to learn
that American news and broad
casts, including Voice OF America,
are being Jumped along with the
Russian variety as "just .propa-
ganda"-onIv not so bad.
U. s. Programs Popular.
talked with a prominent member
OF the Socialist Party, which shares
control of the government with the
conservative Volkspartei and is
strongly anti-Communist. This man
himself claimed to be 4 mo.
bette noir Of the Russians" He said:
American news and broadcasts are
popular first because Of their pro-
gram variety, and also because q
great many Austrians like to hear
somebody hitting back at the Rus
slams.
But another section Of the Aus
trian public would like to hear Q
more impartial presentation than
they get from either the Russian
controlled sources or the American
As matters now stand, each side is 50
partisan that they don't believe
either. A great many people here
feel that the Russians put out q very
clumsy propaganda. We wouldn't
say that about the Americans-but
It's too obviously propaganda"
The same note Of skepticism
tinged the comments of this most
pro-Austrian and anti-C Communist
spokesman on the Marshall plan.
Naturally he was all for the Euro
pean recovery program As envi-
stoned by American statesmen.
And yet" he added, America
would gain by convincing our public
that she is not Just playing = par