Emphasizing that America needs to protect its "precious shield" of freedom of the press, Eric Sevareid, consultant and Senior Broadcaster for CBS News, spoke before an audience of 200 last night at the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics Forum.

In the third annual Joe Alex Morris Jr. '49 lecture Sevareid criticized the Reagan administration's policy of threatening journalistic freedom noting Reagan's "reckless attitude toward the first amendment."

The President "has a wide streak of the authoritarian instinct," Sevareid continued, citing the proposal of lie detector tests and censorship agreements for federal employees.

Truth

Sevareid also emphasized a need for journalism to resist censorship. The purpose of the press is to "find truth as best we can and transmit it with all the skill and courage we can summon," he said.

He noted, however, that getting the truth across to the public is a "two way" street in that the public has a responsibility to "read and listen wisely."

"I'm surprised at the amount of inaccurate and biased reading" that the public reveals in letters responding to stories, he said.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism established the Morris Lectureship in 1981 to honor the Los Angeles Times correspondent, who was killed in Tehran covering the Iranian revolution in 1979. The lectureship brings an American overseas correspondent or foreign affairs commentator to speak at Harvard each year.

The first Lectureship was awarded to Flora Lewis of the New York Times in 1982, and in 1983 the speaker was Norman Kempster of the Los Angeles Times.

As Morris Lecturer, Sevareid will also host a discussion session this morning with Kennedy School students and will meet in the afternoon with members of The Crimson, The Independent and WHRB.

He will meet with current Nieman fellows and creators of the Morris Lectureship this evening.