Storm Warning

The approval, in theory, of world freedom of the press has been apparently unanimous so far, in all democratic countries. Congress, Secretary of State Stettinius, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the A.P. and the U.P., the Democratic and Republican platforms, and officials of most of the United Nations have resoundingly endorsed it. But last week it suddenly appeared that this universal rosy glow might be only the precursor of a red sky at morning, portent of stormy weather.

In a blast directed at U.S. postwar commercial plans in general, including civil aviation as well as the world press, the sober and influential London Economist specifically attacked A.P.'s Executive Director Kent Cooper. It singled out for criticism Pressman Cooper's recent statement in LIFE that, as a first step to world press freedom, preferential transmission rates should be abolished. The Economist observed: "Mr. Cooper, like most big-business executives, experiences a peculiar moral glow in finding that his idea of freedom coincides with his commercial advantage. In his ode to liberty, there is no suggestion that when all barriers are down the huge financial resources of the American agences might enable them to dominate the world. His desire to prevent another Goebbels from poisoning the wells will be universally applauded, but democracy does not necessarily mean making the whole world safe for the A.P."

Retorted Mr. Cooper: "If the Economist is speaking for Britain in wanting to maintain ... its effective control over vast world communications, a thing that Reuters [British news agency] . . . does not itself demand, then perhaps more than ever the issue . . . should be fought out even in advance of the peace."

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