FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22107, 1 June 1937, Page 7

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

"INJUDICIOUS ATTACKS* ON NEWSPAPERS" STATEMENT BY MINISTER What he described as two injudicious attacks on the press of the Dominionone over the air by the Rev. C. G. Scrimgeour and the other in the Labour Party's weekly newspaper, the "Standard" —had caused the opinion to be spread that the Government intended to curtail the freedom of the newspapers by a censorship, said the Act-ing-Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser) in a recent address at Hawera. This idea was quite inconrect, as the Government had never considered such a step, (Mr Fraser declared. The Minister said he did not think the broadcast attack should have been made, and he had made it his business to inquire into the article in the "Standard." This was the opinion of one man, and a man not particularly in the Labour movement at that. It was not the considered opinion of either the Government or the Labour Party. Mr Fraser said that at the next election the whole of the press of New Zealand would be allied against the Labour Government. It was all very well to claim that the press gave the Government members plenty of space. It did, particularly if in an unguarded moment a member of the Government made a remark that could be misconstrued. It then appeared in headlines in every daily newspaper in the country. . .