New Zealand’s Press

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21857, 10 August 1936, Page 10

New Zealand’s Press

There was no flattery in the compliment paid to the press of the Dominion by Mr W. Thomas, District Governor of Rotary in New Zealand. Mr Thomas, on his return from America, said; “ It is a real pleasui'e to get “ back to the Dominion and read the New Zealand papers to find out what the world is “doing.” With the exception of two outstanding daily journals, Mr Thomas found that the American newspapers gave small coverage to international news, concentrating instead upon sport and events of purely local importance. This comment which Mr Thomas made on American journalism applies also in part to journalism in England. There are, of course, distinguished journals which present their news impartially and give an adequate summary of .world news, but these are not the papers with the largest circulations. The self-styled national papers are frequently unreliable in some of the news they present each day; they ignore a great deal, and often, too, news is presented in a way to make it square more easily with the policy of the paper. It may be that a national daily, favouring a special line of international policy, for example, will emphasise unduly news that supports its case. A New Zealander, confronted with this journalistic tangle, may feel in London that he has dess reliable news about what is going on in the world than he has at home. The press of New Zealand can be claimed as unique among the press of the World. It has critics—many of them—in and outside Parliament, but such critics, eager to find a mote in the sunbeam, overlook the excellence of the beam itself. The New Zealand press attempts faithfully to fulfil a dual obligation. It gives, in the first place, a proper summary of New Zealand news of all kinds, from politics to sport. Nothing likely to interest any important section of the community is overlooked, and in addition, ample scope is provided for the explanation of all points of view on public questions. The cable service also gives as good a range of news as is to be found in most papers overseas. Through the press of this country New Zealanders may look upon the world through wide windows across which no curtains are deliberately placed. Each day the readers of Dominion newspapers can learn as much about what is happening in the world as newspaper readers

know in the great capitals, and they know much more than the inhabitants of countries in which the democratic system of government is suspended. It is the constant aim of newspaper workers in this country to act in all things in accordance with the highest traditions of journalism. That they are scrupulous and efficient is shown by the papers produced every day in the Dominion, and the quality of New Zealand journalism is to be shown again by the fact that men trained on New Zealand papers are holding positions of responsibility in London and in every British Dominion. Occasional critics —and more often than not they have obviously large axes to grind—should bear these points in mind. Their only cause for complaint is that the press is not biased in their own direction.