SULTAN'S PRESS RESTRICTIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 10243, 19 February 1897, Page 4

SULTAN'S PRESS RESTRICTIONS.

Abdul Hamid Khan, Sultan of Turkey, " Successor of the Prophet," " Father .of Sovereign," "Refuge of the World," and several other things in the way of titles, contrives to make the lot of journalists within his dominions anything but a happy one. Here are a few of the Turkish Press restrictions:—The health of the Sultan or any member of his family must not be discussed. If the crops are poor tho fact must not be hinted at. Turkish commerce is another tabooed subjeob. Nothing must be criticised not even the weather. No literary or scientific articles are to be published unless they can be completed' in the same issue, because the use of the phrase "To be continued" causes "vexatious suspense "to the readers. Spaces or points to imply the omission of a name or letters of a word are absolutely interdicted, because they are apt to stimulate the imagination of the reader and give ground for "misinterpretations contrary to.loyal expressions and ideas." Personalities must not be indulged in on any account. If rumor should arise as to officials being sua.pected of embezzlement, extortion, assassination, or the like the rumor is to be considered unfounded, and all reference to it entirely suppressed. News of assassina- ! tions or attempts to assassinate .foreign rulers or of conspiracies must not be as the Sultan considers it "undesirable" that such information should be imparted "to hie loyal and peaceful subjects." The last of these rules is that the journalist must not make the slightest reference to their existence, aa it might iavoke "misplaced criticism," ' t