Censorship: No Change in Saigon

No matter who happens to be the boss in South Viet Nam, Saigon’s newspapers lead a precarious existence. Those that don’t die of malnutrition, a common fate where even the biggest daily is hard put to it to muster 35,000 readers, run the risk of offending the government. The late President Diem controlled the press with a heavy hand. And, after a temporary lull, so did the junta government that overthrew him. Last week Major General Nguyen Khanh, who overthrew Diem’s over-throwers last January, demonstrated that he was no different from any of his predecessors. In two successive days he ordered seven Saigon dailies out of print.

The banned papers had sinned in the traditional South Viet Nam way—that is, by printing something not to the authorities’ taste. One paper had dared to refer to Khanh’s military regime as a “socalled democratic government.” Another, noting that terrorists had scuttled a U.S. aircraft ferry in Saigon harbor last month, challenged the adequacy of Khanh’s security measures.