Censors Out

For years the Government of President Getulio Dornellas Vargas has kept a light hand on all news dispatches leaving Brazil, as well as on the domestic press, movies and radio. Last fortnight the grip was released. Dapper, curly-haired Lourival Fontes, director of the D.I.P. (Department of Press and Propaganda) announced to foreign correspondents in Rio de Janeiro that, from now on, no outgoing news would be censored.

At one time all incoming and outgoing mail was censored; censors sat in every newspaper and cable office in Brazil. Although the chief purpose of the censorship was to guard Brazilian neutrality, censors once killed a story about a Bolivian woman who tried to commit suicide after her dog had been run over. Grounds: it set a bad example.

After Brazil stopped publication of foreign-language newspapers last summer, censorship gradually became lighter. Last month's conference at Rio saw the end of censorship in practice as press and censors staged a love feast. The D.I.P. wined & dined visiting newsmen, cut not a single word of their tall stacks of copy.

Brazil's neutrality faded into history when 19 American republics broke with the Axis. Brazilian censorship did not survive its cause. Last fortnight's decision did much to make Rio de Janeiro the news capital of an increasingly newsworthy continent.

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