The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has appealed to the Federal Communications Commission to reject a recommendation from its communications bureau to abolish special press rates on leased telegraph lines within the United States. The JTA informed the Commission that if it accepted the recommendation “it will take an action that will impede the free flow of information to the American public by depriving the small news services, which frequently provide specialized information, of access to the press on a competitive basis.”
The JTA pointed out that “small agencies, specializing in particular areas of the news, are often able to provide information in greater depth and detail on news developments within their area of specialization. It would be a disservice to the American public to deny it the right of speedy access to this information. To abolish the press rates for leased telegraph service would be to close the field to the small news agency. This not only violates basic principles of freedom of competition but of freedom of the press.”
The JTA declared that elimination of the press rates would “gravely hamper it in the distribution of news and would jeopardize its prospects of extending service to other newspapers in the country.” It estimated abolition of the press rates would increase its cost for this type of service by 40 percent. Many of the publications served by JTA, it said, were publications “providing information to a section of the American public deeply concerned with the specialized news this Agency provides.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
