Censoring the Summit

The Soviet government last March bought several hours of video tape from American networks in order to study the coverage of Richard Nixon's visit to Peking--and apparently did not like the view. According to a Soviet television official, the spectacle of Nixon and his Peking hosts at banquets and ballet performances looked "distasteful" to Moscow. Now in an apparent effort to upgrade the taste of summitry, the Soviets intend to limit the U.S. press to a contingent of about 100 journalists and severely curb TV coverage.

In Moscow last week, a group of U.S. network executives learned that they faced tight restrictions on what they can cover and how. The Soviets intend to use Russian crews and equipment for all live shots and to exclude any glimpses of Pat Nixon's activities. Only three weeks before the first Soviet-American summit since Glassboro in 1967, the networks had not even obtained permission to bring their own crews to film the visit for later broadcast. Even if such permission is granted, the indications were that film coverage would be restricted to the ceremonies of Nixon's arrival and departure.

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