Censorship, North and South

Rarely has a magazine had a harder time getting put to bed than Scanlan's November issue. The muckraking monthly has been struggling since Oct. 1 to find a printer who would handle the edition. Given over to "Guerrilla War in the U.S.A.," the November Scanlan's contains drawings and instructions on how to construct, place and detonate types of homemade bombs. At least eight printers said no.

Several said that their refusal was based on doubts about Scanlan's financial situation, but Dun & Bradstreet says that the magazine's latest net worth is $497,976. Scanlan's Editor Sidney E. Zion says that the refusal is an inexcusable act of censorship by the printers. The magazine finally found a printer in Canada, which was understandably reluctant to encourage bombers. Montreal police seized some 100,000 copies on the technicality that the necessary permit had not been obtained. Last week, while Scanlan's lawyer Israel Schawartzberg was rounding up the necessary signatures, he died of a heart attack. At week's end the problematical November issue--now labeled January--was still in Canada. Zion hoped that it would turn up on U.S. newsstands this week.

In Brazil, a country with a military government that knows exactly how free the press should be, nine cartoonists and editors of the satirical weekly O Pas-quim ("The Rag"), have all been in prison for over a month. Uncharged. The tabloid has gone on publishing, blandly stating on its front page that it has been "completely automated." Last week Brazilian police tired of the joke, suspended "The Rag," then lifted the ban without explanation. The staffers remain in jail; "The Rag" remains "automated."

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