INTEGRITY OF PRESS TRIBUTE FROM MR. NASH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21261, 25 November 1943, Page 2

INTEGRITY OF PRESS

TRIBUTE FROM MR. NASH

With all its failings, the British and New Zealand press was far ahead of that of any other country, declared the Hon. W. Nash, Deputy Prime Minister, at the Government luncheon to the British press delegates in Wellington. The complete integrity of the press in regard, to its news columns made Britain’s public better informed than the public of other countries. They owed a debt of gratitude to the press of Britain for what it had done to help Britain during the last few years. Fortunately they had not the yellow press of some countries confined exclusively to flamboyant headings over articles which no one ever read. The vistors were in New Zealand as ambassadors of freedom and a free press. ■Speaking of the press of Britsiin, Sir Walter Layton , said he thought (they could pride themselves that they 'had maintained a free press in the sense of free expression of opinion. He had no recollection of any occasion in the News Chronicle during the war on which a leading article or an expression of opinion had been referred to the censor. The fact that opinion was free was, in his judgment, a very vital fact in the whole of the present struggle.