When Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks set up the Office of Strategic Information two months ago, he stirred up an unexpected storm. The announced purpose of OSI was to furnish "guidance" to newsmen, thus keep "unclassified strategic data" from reaching the Russians. But many U.S. publishers rightly saw the Commerce Department's OSI as a means of censoring the U.S. press.
Last week, with the approval of OSI, the Commerce Department issued its first restrictions on printing nonclassified information. Magazines, newspapers and books cannot be exported, the Department announced, if they contain unclassified technical information on 53 categories of products, ranging from rubber hose...
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