The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1948. N.Z. GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22586, 15 March 1948, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1948. N.Z. GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS

“ r jnHE Post is quite properly putting before the public its viewpoint, the Government’s viewpoint, the employers' viewpoint, and, I believe, the employees’ viewpoint of the whole situation,” said Mr, A. M, Colliding, S.M., in the Wellington Magistrate '9 Court when he dismissed charges against the publishers of the Evening Post of inciting and encouraging a strike (in connection with the carpenters’ dispute). This is an admirable summing-up of the duties of the press as a whole. The significance of Mr. Goulding’s judgment should he lost on no section of the New’ Zealand community. It is eminently in keeping with the functions of a newspaper as once defined by that great independent journal The Times, of London, in the following words: “The first duty of the press is lo obtain the earliest and most correct intelligence of the events of the time, and instantly, by disclosing them, to make them the common property of the nation. . , No country can develop along democratic lines unless its people are kept fully and accurately informed on affairs of public interest going on around them. The editorial column is reserved for submitting the opinions of the press itself, but by far the greater proportion of the reading matter is devoted to presentation of the opinions of others—opinions originating in a variety of sources.

In recent weeks there has been a tendency among members of the New Zealand Cabinet to resent the space being given to the remarks of certain trade union leaders whose influence on the industrial life of the country is believed to be disruptive. The Minister of Justice, Mr. .Mason, for instance, recently urged that the newspapers should refrain, from publishing, in certain circumstances, resolutions passed by organisations or groups of workers. Although the press is well aware that the publication of the collective views of some sections of the workers is not welcomed b,v legislators deeply and perhaps justifiably concerned over the industrial situation, it foresees that a still more acute and more enduring danger would eventually arise from the adoption of a deliberately repressive policy depriving any organisation of workers, even though they he militant, of the rights of free speech. Taking the sensible, long-term view, it is better by far to give every angle of a dispute a reasonable airing.

The Government can rest assured that publication of individual opinions by extremist, trade union leaders and of resolutions of which Ministers do not approve is not done merely with intent to embarrass the official Labour regime or topple it from its pedestal. On the contrary, it is beginning to look as though it will be necessary for all democrats to prop up the Government during the next two years and to support it in every way possible short of purely conventional domestic issues which have little or no bearing on industrial unrest and which can be thrashed out as usual when the next general election draws near. It has been said, with some vestige of excuse, that it would he wisest to let the Government fight its own way out of the uneasy situation its policies have helped to create. Hut in these days of mount ing tension involving Communist aggression, both at home and abroad, the only safe and sane course is to fry 1o strengthen the hand of the State whenever at least some strength and resolution are shown from that quarter. The one measure of support the Government must not expect, however, is the suppression by the newspapers of views from sources which it finds antagonistic. Such a procedure would he the. first step towards a gagged press and another step towards a State dictatorship. Sonic other way out of an admittedly difficult situation will have to he found.