QUOTATIONS FROM FOREIGN NEWSPAPERS. (Hansard, 5 May 1915)

THE MARQUESS OF CREWE

My Lords, this Question deals with two subjects, one of which I answered yesterday—that is to say, the sale of German newspapers. In the other part of his Question the noble Earl asks whether British newspapers in the United Kingdom are sometimes forbidden to quote the statements made by foreign newspapers, and, if so, what is the reason for these restrictions. I have inquired into this matter, and I am told by the authorities that as a general rule statements from foreign newspapers can be copied into newspapers in this country, and, as we all know, that is freely and frequently done; you only have to look at the daily newspapers to see that there is a great number of extracts. But there have been certain cases in which permission to print particular matter has been refused. When in the opinion of the censor matter is of a nature which would be prohibited in an ordinary publication here, there is no reason for allowing it to be printed simply because it has appeared in a foreign newspaper. The view is held that the fact of a statement or an opinion being reproduced in a British newspaper, even though only as a quotation, sometimes gives it another kind of credit, and, indeed, something of a 936 different character from that which belonged to it when it was only published in the foreign newspaper in which it first appeared. There have been, I am told, a number of cases in which statements copied in this way from foreign newspapers into British newspapers have been reproduced in hostile countries, particularly, I fancy, in Germany, as though they formed part of the opinion of the British newspaper. That may or may not be a matter of particular importance, but what I think is important is that it is only in special cases—where in the judgment of the censorship it is undesirable to reproduce these articles—that permission has been refused, and that in the vast majority of cases permission is freely given.