FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND NATIONAL SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780082-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: April 29, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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LITTL_9!sit!ed and Approved For Release 2013/05/17 :.CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780082-3
ARKANSAS GAZETTE
Circ.: m.j 85,979
S4 96,826
I Front Editj Other
Page Page Page
_Date: pR 2 9 1961
dom of the Press
And National Security
PRESIDENT KENNEDY has broachei,
one of the most P'erplexing problems
arising from the Cold War in h4. ap.peal
to Itie_arga ggal at" i n
dealing with news disclosures which he
feels have been damaging to national
security.
What. Mr. Kennedy has done is to
obliquely turn attention to one large
phase of a great issue of the times: How
a free society can combat a totalitarian
society without becoming totalitarian
itself. The free society, in its inherent
reliance upon a free press, yields to the
totalitarian foe some advantage in the
competition for military intelligence.
Yet if the press should become controll-
ed by the government then the totali-
tarian method would have been adopted
in a 'critical area of freedom.
Mr. Kennedy r,ecognized this princi-
ple fully in th inonition which he de-
livered this w the American News-
paper Publisher sSociation. He ruled
out, at the out t, "any new forms of
censorship or any new types of security
classification." Government censorship
is indeed out of the question and so it
is that Mr. Kennedy is hanging his thesis,
on self-discipline'. II). thiVight, he has
raised a fair que ?Via- Sether or not
all his conclusio rranted.
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THE PRESIb theless, has
stated his case i ta consider ex-
aggerated ter o broad an
area. He assert ;Size, strength,
location and nat mit armed forces
and weapons, alopOith plans and strat-
egy, have been erst.10.Sed "to a degree
sufficient to satisfy any foreign. power."
if such a grave assessment , were in
fact accurate, then Mr. Kennedy might
best begin by putting some new enforce-
ment behind the rules against loose talk
in the armed forces. He might also di-
rect his admbnitions at the outset to
,
ranking, and sometimes indiscreet, mem-
bers of Congress, who have privileged
, access to 'information.
i
, Mr. Kennedy's message might haN
: been worth more if it had been directed "i-,
, specifically to the extraordinary situa-
tion attending the Cuban fiasco, which
presumably prompted him to TM. upon
the publishers for restraint-7' the ill-
fated Cuban invasion was h4Rilicapped,
at least in some degree, by tli 'running
news stories about the invasion prepara-
tions which were going on in 'this coun-
try. TI...alicit,y_vasa secadary fac
tor, especially compared ,with the
cal failure of Central Intelligence to as
sess the st7e77 of Castro and th
readiness of the Cuban people to revolt.
Even so, the insurgents' cause was hard-
ly helped by detailed news stories about
' the preparations.
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THE QUESTION now before the press
'
' is how to handle the news about new
preparations if a second (and larger) in-
vasion is planned. What to do about ,
the issue,-however, is not easily defined.
There is no easy way to an effective
self-discipline. FOr example, Florida
newspapers had by agreement withheld
a great deal of what they knew about
the Cuban invasion preparations until,
one morning, a detailed story was bro-
ken by a newspaper in the Northeast.
In any case the newspapers and other
media should keep under close, individ-
ual examination their policies in areas
affecting national security. Even though
the president's conclusions reach too far, '
the press would do better to mind its
responsibilities than to occupy itself i
inordinately with fiery defenses again/ ,
the Ofesident's criticism. Mr. Kennedy ,
has proposed no restraints on press fre
om, and in this light the press shout
five dispassionate attention to what he
as Ur say. . -.
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/17: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780087-fl