BREACH OF WAR REGULATIONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VII, Issue 110, 4 May 1917, Page 6

BREACH OF WAR REGULATIONS.

NEWSPAPER FINED £5. Dunedin, May 4. The hearing was resumed m the Dunedin Police Court to-day of the charge against the “Evening Star” Coy. and Professor Bedford, the former with publishing and the latter with communicating certain information with •espect to the movements of naval and military 7 forces, and of a transport whose voyage lay partially north of the equator. Each defendant was fined £5 and costs. The Magistrate held that Dr. Bedford’s contention that the journey 7 of the ship having terminated, it was no offence was incorrect. The The regulation is much more farreaching. The Magistrate held that the newspaper and Doctor were equally responsible for the publication. It was claimed that substantially the same statements had been passed by 7 the Censor in succeeding articles, and the Censor in reply pointed out several instances where the interview report contained matter not in the succeeding articles. The Magistrate said that the explanation did not appear to be altogether satisfactory to him, for, apart, from these particular points, it seemed that the article did contain substantially the same information. He could not dissociate the matter contained in the article and in the

interview, and the matter in the former, it. seemed to him, minimises what might have been the full seriousness of the charges.