GAGGING THE PRESS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 251, 24 January 1889, Page 2

GAGGING THE PRESS.

Ths verdict in the libel action against the New Zealand Herald is a strong commentary on the absurd libel laws which are now in existence in this colony. The verdict simply amounts to this, that it is possible for any man with sufficient means to gag the Press in the fulfilment of one of its highest functions. The journal alluded to is without doubt one of the best and most respectable papers in the colony, and for a fair and honest comment, inspired only by the writer’s regard for his public duty, and bunded upon the statement of a member of Parliament, the proprietors are involved in damages to the extent of £5OO, to which a like amount may be added for expenses. In what consists the liberty of the Press when such a state of things can prevail ? We quarrel not with the verdict of the jury : the damages awarded are much too high, but in other respects the jury only abided by the law, as it was their duty to do. But the law which allows such a thing is so monstrous that it should not be allowed to exist in its present form a day longer than it must be endured. It is at present a blot upon the statute book, and which may ba widened in its murky aspect to be a taint upon a community or upon the colony as a whole. Political morality is at such a low ebb that it is only by the vigilance of an outspoken Press there can be any hops of preventing things going from bad to worse. What was one of the first indecent spectacles of the recess but to see Ministers jaunting off to Melbourne to see the Cup race and Exhibition, to see the Attorney-General settling himself quietly at Auckland when business should have detained him in Wellington ?—in a short time to see the seat of Gorernmept deserted, and Ministers scattered in every direction, instead of communing with one another at a time when of all others the public business appeared to require it. Were it not for the outspokenness of a section ot tha Press, the taxpayers would know little or nothing of the intrigues that have been carried on with regard to the vacant judgeship, the appointment of railway commissioners, the Midland Railway, and many other notorious affairs which are included in our most recent political history. In the case in question the facts subsequently proved to have been slightly different to what was supposed, but the article was founded on a statement made by a member of the House of Representatives, and that statement being proved to be wrong the weight and point of the article were lost. Our con temporary might certainly have known that some members of Parliament are no more to be relied upon for speaking the truth than was the man who got the prize for telling the biggest lie when he said he had never lied in his life. But if a member of Parliament openly makes a statement concerning a fellow member, and all tha circumstances give the color of truth to what has been said, is every journal io the colony bound to despatch detectives to ascertain whether the M.H.R. is a liar, before comment can be made on the subject referred to ? The outcome of the action against the New Zealand Herald is of great interest to every taxpayer in the country, for it is a hard blow at the freedom of the Press. Such laws might suit very well in Russia, but no British community ought to tolerate them. The proprietors of the Herald ape entitled to the sympathy of all who have any regard for a spirit of fair play and uphold the right of honest comment upon the actions of our public men. Though those proprietors are made to suffer monetarily they will have the satisfaction of knowing that it was in the prosecution of a public duty, and what is their direct loss ought assuredly to be an indirect gain to the public, for the general attention which has been directed to the. matter will probably lead to qn early revision of the unjust libel laws which now disgrace the statute book.