NEWSPAPER “WAR”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28795, 16 January 1959, Page 6

NEWSPAPER “WAR”

Court Action Fails

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, Jan. 14. Actions for contempt of Court against Frank Packer, managingdirector of Consolidated Press, Ltd., publishers of the “Daily Telegraph,” and the editor, King Watson, failed before Mr Justice Manning in the Supreme Court today.

The Judge also dismissed an application for a writ of sequestration against the company, which would have had the effect of receivers appointed by the Court taking control of the company’s assets.

In all three cases, Mr Justice Manning ordered John Fairfax and Sons Pty., Ltd., publishers of the “Sydney Morning Herald,” which instigated the actions, to pay costs.

His Honour said the actions of the “Daily Telegraph” in taking advertisements from the “Sydney Morning Herald” left much to be desired.

He also expressed the view that the “Herald” should not have taken such serious action against Consolidated Press and its executive officers without further evidence of the matters alleged. Mr Justice Manning said he had made a careful comparison of the deaths appearing in the “Herald” and those appearing in the “Telegraph,” but so far as he could see none of those in the “Telegraph” appeared in precisely the same form. All had some difference.

Mr Justice Manning said his comparisons showed that two “trap” notices in the “Herald” death columns on January 5 had not appeared in the “Telegraph” in the same form.

Mr Justice Manning said there was no doubt that the “Telegraph” had used the “Herald’s” basic material in many of its advertisements, but basic material was not the subject of copyright.