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PERTH,WEDNESDIAY,MARCH 7, 1916.
BEVENTYBECOND YEAR,
NEWS to ... Zhe 'World's Oldest Cartel Newspaper Proprietors Sell what is to their Own and .their Country's Advantage How the Agencies Combine was Formed. *Destroying Truth by Suppression and Emphasis .. . One of the greatest of the many myths of our age, writes Father J. G. Murtagh,in "The Advocate," is " the freedom of the press."
Newsapers are as
free as their proprietors permit them,and news is a commodity
that
is
bought and sold--and the great news agencies only see what is to their ownen and their country' sadvantage . During the war, not a little
has
been
heard in the press of international cartels in oil,chemicals and other . materials. But nothing,naturally,is ever whispered of the oldest and greatest cartel of all—the world news cartel—which controls and dispenses what we read of other countries in our morning and evening papers. avas relatively free, its foreign news The period between the first world was not, because of the working of the war and the present struggle—the cartel. twenties and the thirties—was preSpheres of Influence. eminently the great newsagency epoch when Reuters, IIavas and Wolff in the world's history. The vast dejoined up in IS70. they had almost velopment and extension of the telecomplete control of international news graph, cable and radio and the spread and split the world up between them of popular journalism called for faster into spheres of influence. The line news services covering the whole globe. was as follows: But the journalist's dream of a free Reuters: England. Ireland, Scotland, exchange of information, leading to a greater understanding and happier relations bemeen peoples, was never to be realised. The Big Three. The reason was that in 1870, fifty years before, three great news agencies had pooled their resources and established the most powerful cartel the world has ever known. They were Reuters of England. IIavas of France, and Wolff of Germany. These three institutions grew up independently of newspapers. Reuters was originally a small business, sending market data and government messages between capitals. When the telegraph and cable were invented, Reuter succeeded in selling the foreign news he gathered to London newspapers. During the Victorian era, Reuters grew to mammoth proportions and prestige, with a worldwide network of cables. Meanwhile, similar agencies were established in the continent—IIavas in France and Wolff in Germany. These European agencies were almost completely subject to their governments, and were semi-officially recognised, operating on the principle, " Tell the news the Government way and take your profit." While the domestic press of England, France and Germany
Canada. Australia, India, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Arabia, Egypt and Sudan, British Africa, Ethiopia, Belgian Congo, Afghanistan, Burma, China, Japan. New Zealand, :Netherlands Indies. IIavas: France, Spain. Portugal, Switzerland, Italy and all South America. Wolff: Germany, Russia Scandanavia, Austria and the Slavic States. Other countries they shared between them, .ln attempt was made after the last war at the Versailles Conference to break the Reuters-Havas-Wolff cartelThe story is told by Mr. Kent Cooper, of the American Associated Press, in his remarkable book, " Barriers Down: The Story of the News Agency Epoch" (Farrar and Rinehart, New fork, 1942[. %fr. Cooper had plans for free. dom of international news, which were communicated to Colonel House, the adviser to President Wilson. But nothing came of it. Colonel House told me, writes Mr. Cooper, that " the matter had been taken care of private-
ly •'
ReutersHavas Monopoly. What happened was that Wolff. of Germany, the defeated nation, was deprived of its territories, and Reuters
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and Navas split up its sphere of influence between them. So by 1920 the world news cartel was a bigger monopoly than ever, with Reuters and Navas virtually dominating the world and controlling some twenty-seven news agencies.
The Art of Suppression , The away the news cartel operates to destroy truth is mainly by suppression and emphasis. Truth lies in propor. tion, but by suppressing, certain facts and playing up others, a false picture of a country or a situation can be created . All the news to and from Reuter ' s sphere of influence was " processed" in Reuters clearing house and supplied to Havas—and vice-versa. The way this worked in practice boas that news detrimental to England , France
(and Germany when Wolff was an equal partner )was suppressed and only news that suited their policy sent out to the world, The overwhelming volume of foreign news which Australians read in the Australian Associated Press, when traced to its origins, came through the cartel. A classic example of the working of the cartel, which has caused great bitterness in the United States, is the picture of America that was spread abroad during the twenties and thirties by Reuters. The Associated Press of America, a non-profit organisation co-operatively owned by newspapers, succeeded in making an agreement. with Reuters to keep Reuters out of U.S.A. The Associated Press agreed to take Reuter's despatches and Reuters argeed to take Associated Press despatches. The "Gangster Era" But Reuters, the Americans complained, sent only news that the Brit. i<h wanted the Americans to read, and suppressed or distorted the Associated Press despatches and sent only news of America that the British wanted the outside word to read. The Associated Press actually placed guards in Renter's offices in an effort to prevent it. And, of course. Havas and Wolff, the other partners of the cartel, repeated the slanted American news they re. ceived from Reuters throughout their respective spheres of influence. This resulted in what may be called the " gangster era" of American news Newspapers the world over, including our own, received news of America from the cartel, which built up a pic . ture of America as a land of violence, sudden death ,gangsterism,and general craziness . The real America seldom
emerged. Even to-day there are peo. ple in Australia who genuinelv believe that it is dangerous to walk down the main street of Chicago.
E. L01"SINI
Navas Octopus Ilavas provides an example of the working of the cartel in the field of European news, Haves was not only a new agency,but a great advertising agency, with a powerful hold over newspapers.Unless papers took Haves news, they received no advertising. Havas owned and controlled a large group of subsidiaries . It owned the Fabra Agency of Spain, a Portuguese agency, half-owned ( with Reuters) the main Belgian news agency and controlled financially the Stefani agency of Italy. King Albert of the Belgians unsuccessfully tried to break away from the Reuters-Haves domination. So also the Italian Stefani. Havas threatened to 'withdraw advertising. So Stefan remained a subsidiary of IIavas, until something worse happened. Mussolini took it over as an official Fascist, news agency. Lott Wing News. Now it is important to recall that the news that flowed from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, South America, etc., to IIavas's headquarters from its subsidiaries was processed, according to French pohitical policy, before being supplied to its partners in the cartel. Until IIitler conquered France, the Southern European news we read in Australian papers came from Reuters; Reuters got it from Havas; Navas chose and angled it to its needs. During the thirties, France was ruled by Left-wing Governments—Socialist and Popular Front— with little sympathy for the Catholic Church. Small nwonder, then, that so much European news had a distinctly anti-Catholic flavour. The wonder is that so much authentic news reached the outside world at all, mainly through other rources,
Spanish War. The case of the Spanish Civil War showed the cartel at work in, perhaps,
the greatest conspiracy against truth in the history of journalism. flavas owned the Fabra news agency of Spain tined the overwhelming proportion of the news on the Spanish war was fun. nelled through Havas, under a Leftnving Government, to Reuters and so to virtually the entire Englishspeaking world. ( By this time, of course, Wolff had suffered a worse fate. flit. ler had risen to power in Germany, destroved Wolff, and established in its stead D.N.B., an official Nazi news agency.) The complete truth about the Spanish Civil War never reached the outside world through the standard news agencies ,because of the Reutersilavas cartel. The facts that were suppressed or played down by Havas, such ac the Red terror, the persecution
(Continued on Back Cover.)
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