Evening star., 1951-12-30

time since the Franco regime took
over.
Situation Round the World
Here is the situation around the
world. in detail:
Moscow still has small foreign
press contingent, but all outgoing
dispatches are subject to rigid
censorship. Most Of the direct news
from Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and
Romania comes from official broad
casts. There is only a dribble of
news from Poland. In Hungary the
AP correspondent, a Hungarian, Is
subject TO responsibility censor
ship" That is. he can be called on
the carpet for anything In the
stories he transmits abroad which
the government finds displeasing
The domestic press in Russia and
her satellites remains the same
rigidly adhering to the party line,
full of hate-the-W West propaganda.
Western Europe.
Spain - The major development
here has been the unaccustomed
freedom enjoyed by Spanish news
men since the appointment last July
of Gabriel Arias Salgado as Minis
ter of Information. Arias has made
plain certain taboos remain-no criti-
cism of fundamental laws of the
Franco regime, the person of the
Chief Of State or the Roman Cath
olic Church. But newsmen are free
to criticize provincial officials and
even cabinet officials. Arias is work.
ing on a new press law which may
go into effect in 1852. Incoming news
is subject to less cutting. Foreign
correspondents have found their re-
lations with authorities considerably
improved. There is no censorship,
but correspondents can be called TO
account for what appears in news
papers abroad.
Austria The Western powers
want to abolish censorship of Aus
trian telephone communications. but
the Russians won't go along. The
nub of the matter is that the Aus
trian telephone exchange is con-
trolled by the Russians, since it is
in their zone. Accredited foreign
correspondents are not subject to
censorship of outgoing dispatches.
West Germany - Foreign CORE
spondents and the German press are
not censored. Some Communist pub
locations have been banned tempo
rarily by the Allied High Commits
sion and West German authorities
after attacks on the West. The AL
lies reserve the power to intervene
in German press affairs if necessary
to protect the prestige and security
of their military forces.
East Germany-The Soviet Control
Commission and the Communicated
government enforce rigid control OF
the press along Communist lines Ed
itorial policies conform to instructions
from the Red leadership. Only Com
munists are eligible to become for
eign correspondents"
France-The press is free and there
is no censorship of outgoing dis
patches. The government owned
posts, telephone and telegraph re-
serves the rights to monitor and cen
sor dispatches.
YugoSlavia-No censorship of out
going dispatches, but the Yugoslavs
are sensitive as to what appears
abroad. The Communist newspaper
Borba recently took a couple of cor
respondents to task for stories about
peasant resistance to the govern
ment's farm collective program.
Greece and Italy-No censorship.
Switzerland-No censorship. Can
tonal authorities may ban the public
sale Of newspapers or magazines re-
garded as obscene. The federal con-
stitution provides punishment for any
Swiss citizen who is guilty of under
mining the neutrality and independ-
ence" of his country. In this con-
nection the federal court sentenced
the editor of a Communist newspaper
to Is months for accusing SwitZer-
land of abandoning traditional neu-
trality and joining the camp of the
Yankee warmongers."
Denmark, Finland, Norway ano
Sweden-No censorship. But in Den
mark the high price Of newsprint
has closed 26 papers since the situa-
ton became acute.
Portugal-There is no direct CEN
sorship of foreign correspondents
but they are held responsible fol-
what they write. The domestic press
is government-contro
Britain and the Commonwealth.
There has been no change in the
traditional no-censorship Of the
United Kingdom or the Common
wealth nations of Canada, New Zea-
land or Australia. British libel laws
remain severe.
South Africa has passed law for
suppression of communism and the
government is investigating one
weekly newspaper, the guardian. on
charges of being pro-Red. The min
ister of Justice can ban the paper if
he decides a report from an investi-
eating committee justifies such pro-
cedure.
India-There is no censorship OF
outgoing or incoming dispatches but
India, under new press law ap-
proved by Parliament In September,
has the power to control publication
of news. This is known as the law
to ban Indictment to crime"
India and Pakistan have a formal
agreement providing for measures by