HC Deb 09 September 1942 vol 383 c133
20. Sir Herbert Williams

asked the Minister of Information the reason for the complete suppression by the British Broadcasting Corporation in their midnight news of 5th August of any reference to the speech in the House of Commons that day of the hon. Member for Peckham (Mr. Silkin), the chairman of the Sub-Committee which prepared the Eleventh Report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure, having regard to the fact that reference was made in the midnight news to other speeches in the debate on that Report?

Mr. Bracken

The B.B.C. inform me that, on this occasion, a reference to the speech of the hon. Member for Peckham (Mr. Silkin) on 5th August was made in their 6 o'clock news bulletin. Just as newspapers have to change the items of news which they report in their various editions, so the B.B.C. have to vary their news bulletins according to the demands at the moment. For this reason they regret that it did not prove possible to make further references in later bulletins to the admirable speech by the hon. Member.

Sir H. Williams

Having regard to the fact that this hon. Member was in one sense the principal speaker in the Debate, having been the author of the Report under discussion, was it not a very unfortunate decision on the part of the B.B.C.?

Mr. Bracken

Yes, the B.B.C. news editor, like the news editors of newspapers, sometimes falls into error.