Censorship often exists in wartime, professor says
Press censorship isn’t generally tolerated, but during war it may not only be necessary, but also positive, said Michael Sweeney, an associate professor of journalism at Utah State University Thursday as a presenter for the Journalism and Communications department Media & Society lecture series.
In his recently-published book, “The Gospel of Censorship During WWII: Secrets of Victory,” Sweeney discusses the radio era. During this time, the United States was involved in World War II, and most of the news reported at the time was bad news, he said.
Sweeney told the story of a sportscaster who was reporting a sporting event, and as the game was unfolding a weather front moved in and blanketed the stadium. Because of the war, the broadcaster was not allowed to let the audience know of the fog because this information could have helped the enemy. Weather like this was never broadcast live under a policy considered voluntary censorship.
Sweeney said there was a difference in censorship issues between broadcast and printed press. Radio censorship was voluntary, because once someone has said something, it can’t be taken back.
“When you print something in the paper you have basically three ways to censor the information: One, to censor the information prior to print; two, collect and burn the paper after it has been printed; and three, stop it at the border before it crossed,” Sweeney said.
The U.S. government decided to guide the press in its reporting of military information, rather than censor outright. This because of the fight they would have over First Amendment rights and the fact that at the time there were 12,000 newspapers and 900 radio stations.