The Press: No Time for Censors

Should the press submit to voluntary censorship in peacetime? When Defense Secretary James V. Forrestal put the question to a committee of press, radio and newsreel representatives last spring (TIME, March 15), he got a short no. The responsibility for keeping military secrets, the committee decided, rested on the armed services; they should not give out "secret" information.

With this view many working newsmen wholeheartedly disagreed; they felt that such a policy would be an open invitation to military men to slap the "top-secret" stamp on matters of legitimate public interest. Such newsmen felt that the press has the right to know...

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