JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1523, 20 August 1912, Page 6

JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION.

SOME MISLEADING STATEMENTS. IBy Xtleeraph.—Special Correspondent,! Christchurch, August 19. Strong resentment is felt by a number of ChristchuTch newspaper men at the way in which tho Press Association is being used to circulate partisan and misleading statements regarding the Journalists' Association. Tho Press Association messages about the meeting of the Journalists' Association in Wellington on Satunlny slated that it was unanimously itv solved to register under tho Coiiciliation and Arbitration Act, tho only inference to bo drawn from this was that the whole mooting had unanimously adopted the repplution. Private telegrams from Wellington show that, so far from this being the case, tho resolution was carried, if nt all, on which point no definite information is to hand, by a minority of those who were prosent-during tho earlier part of tho proceedings. Another instance of newspapers being led to publish erroneous statements regarding tho Journalists' Associntion is furnished by a Press Association message. sent from Christchurch last week in. which it was alleged that "practically every working journalist in tho city has enrolJed with the union." To put it briefly this was, and is, a mis-stntcjiient of known facts. There aro probably somo fifty "working journalists" in "Christchurch, if proof-readers and copy-holdera are included, and of these some 15 or 21) of tho most prominent have not enrolled) with tho union. The Journalists' Institute, which seeks to maintain tho status of journalism as a profession, ie still a livo organisation. ' In yosterdny's Dominion a paragraph appeared stating that at a general meet-t' ing of tho Wellington Branch of the . Journalists' Association on Saturday ovening, it was unanimously decided to register as a union, of workers under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. Tho paragraph was supplied by an official of the association. It ought, how* ever, to bo stated that during the earlier part of the meotting the majority of those present withdrew and the minority adjourned to o private residence and there transacted tho business referred to in the paragraph.