"You cannot hope to bribe or twist
Thank God! the British journalist.
But seeing what the man will do
unbribed, there's no occasion to."

ORWELL ON FREE PRESS

Orwell Essays 3

To Orwell Today,

It has come to my attention that Orwell wrote a rare piece titled "The Supression of the Free Press in England," a work which I have tried to locate for quite some time. Are you able to supply me any information on this work?

Thanks and God bless,
Bryan Shepherd,
The Orestes Brownson Society

Greetings Bryan,

I don't know of an essay or article written by Orwell with that title, and I don't recognize it from my copy of THE COLLECTED ESSAYS, JOURNALISM AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ORWELL (a volume of which I've scanned above).

But in those four volumes - a couple of years ago when I got them - I read an article he wrote for the TRIBUNE (a magazine for which he was the literary editor) in his weekly AS I PLEASE column, which I entitled BRITISH PRESS CIRCUS DOGS.

Perhaps that is the rare piece of his writing that you have in mind, concerning as it does the suppression of free press in England.

And - of course - a major component of "1984" is Orwell's description of the "Ministry of Truth" which is all about suppression of the free press, ie the Ministry of Truth "concerns itself with lies" - the opposite of what it professes to do.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~
website: www.orwelltoday.com & email: orwelltoday@orwelltoday.com

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