Censorship in Spain

In Madrid last week, New York Timesman Sam Pope Brewer left his press card at the Spanish Ministry of Education for the renewal required every six months. Next day, Reporter Brewer was summoned to the ministry, told that his press credentials had been canceled because his reporting, and the Times's "attitude," had been "generally biased and unfair toward Spain." He was told he would have to leave Spain by June 6.

To Brewer and the six other U.S. correspondents in Madrid,* the news confirmed their suspicions that the Spanish government, which protests it has no censorship on outgoing news, is clamping down.

After he got the word from the ministry, Brewer tried fruitlessly to get an explanation from Spanish officials, then asked U.S. Ambassador Stanton Griffis for help. Ambassador Griffis cabled Washington for instructions. Finally, on State Department orders, he protested to the Spanish Foreign Ministry.

The strange part of the whole affair was that Newsman Brewer, 42, who had done a workmanlike, and often critical, job of reporting in his year and a half in Spain, has recently found fewer flaws and weaknesses to report. Moreover, the appointment of a U.S. ambassador last December had supposedly signaled a new, more friendly relationship between the two governments. Actually, that seemed to be the root of Brewer's troubles. With full diplomatic relations reestablished, Spain apparently thought it safe to get tough with U.S. correspondents.

* A.P.'s Louis Nevin, U.P.'s Ralph Forte and Haynes Thompson, I.N.S.'s H. Edward Knob-laugh, TIME'S Piero Saporiti, Chicago Tribune's Jocelyn Bush.

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