"A Hazardous Step"

Ever since the U.S. thoughtlessly suggested five years ago that the United Nations try to legislate freedom of the press throughout the world, U.S. editors and diplomats alike have regretted the proposal. Nations where the press has little freedom quickly seized on the proposal as a method to hamstring press freedom rather than help it (TIME, March 10, et seq.). Last week the restrictionists won their first, clear victory.

Over U.S. and British opposition, the General Assembly passed a "Right of Correction Treaty." If the U.S. Government ratified the treaty, for example, it would be required to distribute to the press "corrections" from any other government that feels it has been misrepresented by U.S. papers. U.S. Delegate Charles Sprague, ex-governor of Oregon and publisher of the Salem (Ore.) Statesman, called the treaty a "hazardous step" because it would force a government to distribute to its press any propaganda other countries wanted to foist upon it. The Russians and their satellites also voted against the treaty on completely different grounds: they are still pushing for a treaty that will stop the "warmongering of the Western press," i.e., any news the Communists don't like. Even though the U.S., Britain and other countries will refuse to sign the treaty, and thus will not be bound by it, it stands a good chance of being ratified by other member nations and becoming a part, however little honored, of the international law that U.N. writes from time to time.

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