Evening star., 1949-07-31

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revolution
In articles published. during
leaders in this field have explaine'
that in the future, only those pub
lications and that kind of new
which further their cause will b.
permitted. They have justif1e'
this philosophy and argued tina
objectivity in the handling of new
cannot exist. They insist tina
editors and writer's inevitably Civ
preference to those items of in
formation which conform will
their particular political philoso
ply.
To the best of my knowledge
it has not been stated explicitly
who is to make the ultimate de-
cision regarding the ends to which
their efforts are to be geared. But
the implication is clear: the goals
set by the Chinese Communist
party and its democratic allies
are to provide the targets toward
which all Chinese neWspapermer
must work. 1 have met very few
men who recognized the dangers
of national delusion inherent in
this approach.
Permitted One Red Paper
This basic idea is not new to
China. The Kuomintang, during
its days of power. subscribed in
practice to a similar philosophy
But the Kuomintang leaders who
had real power we're not united
in acceptance of a single dogma
Many gave financial support and
political protection to newspapers
that reflected the ideas of a par
ticular individual or Kuomintang
group. Largely as a gesture to-
ward national unity during the
war with Japan, the Nationalist
government permitted the pub
lication in Chungking of a Com
munist newspaper, the New China
Daily.
Although the secret police fire.
quently bounded editors and
wrecked plants of papers that
were not in line with Nationalist
propaganda. the very ineficiency
of the Nationalist regime per-
mitted a limited latitude. AS a
rule, the Nationalist government
refused to issue registration per.
mits to any publication that was
considered potentially unfriendly
When the Ia Kung Pao, the stur.
diest and most independent news
paper in China; criticized the gov.
ernment, all reporters and mem
bers of the staff of the paper
were barred from travel on gov
ernment airplanes.
From the Communists we car
expect little of this ineficiency
Only a fraction of the newspapers
in. China's largest cities were
commercially sound. Many lived
on political subsidies or blackmail
Some Reorganized.
When the Communists captured
the largest cities in the Yangtze
Valley. all Chinese newspapers i'm
mediately switched over. Where
they previously had published
stories from the Kuomintang S
Central News Agency, they now
substituted material from the
Communist New China News
Agency.
In spite of the about-face. the
Communists closed down a num-
ber of papers and insisted that the
others be reorganized. Frequently
this meant that an editor with
known sympathies for the new
regime moved into control of the
newspaper, the staff was over
hauled and violent pro-National-
lists who had not already fled were
denoted and let out.
Shanghai's largest newspaper
the Sin Wen Pao, was closed
down. The Communists took over
and used the city's oldest paper
the Shun Pao. both papers had
come under the control of the
right-wing clique of the Kuomin-
tang after vi Day when the own
ers were forced to turn over a
majority of the stock to men ap-
pointed by Chang Kai-shek. The
principal newspaper still recogniz-
able is the Ia Kung Pao where
the staff remains much the same.
The Ia Kung Pao bends with
the wind" although it gives the
largest selection of news.
Communist plans call for the
development of newspapers and
magazines representing the vari-
Gus professions, trade unions and
business groups. At present in
spite of the fact that the great
number of Chinese newspapermen
have switched to the Communist
side, the new rulers are short of
men. When the civil war is over,
they plan = to train an entire
cadre who can help establish the
new journalism.
At the moment the opportuni-
ties for affecting the development
of the Chinese press from the
West are obviously limited. AS a
symbol, the Chinese Communists
have given a high rating to the
United Nations. But it is not
likely that their leading newspa-
permen will pay much attention
to U. N. declaration on free
dom of the press which they do
not help formulate.
Way Open for Reform.
However, I do not think that
the obstacles should prevent at
tempts to influence the future
character of China's press.
Among Chinese newspapermen
who have gone over to work with
the Communists are a number ia
miliar with our Western ideas of
the press and have a respect for