ALERT TO CENSORSHIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790063-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2013
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: May 8, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

?
o
?
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/29: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790063-3
CANTON (Ohio)
REPOS ORY
69,986
76,001
Circ.:
Front
page
E it
P ge
Other
Page
8 .19fili
MAY
Alert to Censorship
- This week in Washington some of the
cool heads of the newspaper industry will
talk with President Kennedy about his re-
cent ,suggestions for voluntary press censor--
ship in the cold war.
The purpose is to make the President
spell out what he has in mind so the
' newspaper industry can know 'where it'
stands and relay this information to its
' readers.
There is more to this meeting than meets
the casual eye and ear, because Mr.. Ken-
nedy so far has confined his suggestions
about voluntary censorship to newspdpers
and has not mentioned magazines, Adio
and television.
Obviously, every agency of communication'
would have to subscribe to a code of cen-
sorship, whether the agency happened to be
a newspaper, or a television station. And
because every agency of , communication
either is or claims to be protected by the .
Fjrst Amendment to the Constitution, which
forbids legislation concerning the press, the
most voluntary kind of censorship imagine-.
ble would entail a surrender of- the dot-
trine .that freedom from gOverrirnent is the
public's bdst guarantee` of reliable informa-
, bon.
, What always happens in these situations
is that all agencies of communication 'are
, conceded to be free but some ,agencies end'
up by being freer ? than others ? like the
crack about all men being equal but some
being more equal. ? -
This is what, the newspaper industry must
be alert to,, because it. is the broadest tar-
get for political abuse.
8 19 61
Any hint from the White House of .dia-
satisfaction with a code of news reporting?
that makes fair game of all 'secrets, even
government secrets, rings an alarm. The di-
rect provocation for President Kennedy's re-
marks, first made at the American News-
paper Publishers Association, irt?.,New York
May 27, was coverage given by ? elements
of, the press to preparations for invasion of
Cuba.
This 'coverage tipped off readers to every-
thing that was in the works, .except the
date of the invasion. It enabled CaStro and
his Russian sponsors to create' an interna-
tional opinion against the invaders. Whether
it may have added to the failure of the
invasion itself is uncertain.
But there couldn't be a better example
?
of the futility of any kind of censorship.
few?Arir ricant, were made aware
that their governinent -'t'hrough th
Iny was backing 'a ?ban
invasion.
were 'shocked %V*.
they,?beard,abont it for .the, fitst time after
the ,inyasiotv4ailed.
But everycine in Castro's government knew
about it. The -Kremlin knew about it. Peip-
ing knew about it. Cubans knew about it.
This is the irony of voluntary ? censorship
as tried in the United States, .notably dur-
ing World War II. Newspapers agree' to
keep sensitive information from the know-
ledge of their readers; but while they are
doing this everybecily and his brother and
'their sisters; cousins and aunts know about
it anyway. And the enemy knows more
about it than anyone else.
_
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/29: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790063-3