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John Seymour Chaloner
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After World War II, Chaloner, a British military officer, was assigned to establish a free press in war-torn Germany. Just 21 years old at the time, Chaloner met Rudolf Augstein, 22, a German ex-officer, who was applying as a journalist. Chaloner noticed Augstein was unlike other Germans he was interviewing: he was "not at all submissive like most Germans," he said, who tended to always say "Yes, sir, you're right, sir!" Augstein got the job to start a new magazine, and Diese Woche ("This Week") was born with Chaloner named publisher. Chaloner became known in Germany as "the father of the freedom of press" -- in part because he didn't censor Diese Woche. He allowed the new magazine to criticize forced labor by the French, deportation of German workers to Russia, and inadequate food rations, showing that "freedom of the press" includes the freedom to criticize occupation officials. It was not without cost: Chaloner was relieved of duty when the French and the Russians complained about the coverage. Chaloner urged occupation powers to turn the publisher's chair over to Augstein; the unfettered magazine would "be seen as the first representative of an independent Germany," Chaloner argued, expressing "the German point of view." Augstein was given a license to continue the magazine without British supervision, and as publisher he renamed the magazine Der Spiegel ("The Mirror"), which is still published today. Chaloner died February 9. He was 82.
From This is True for 18 February 2007
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