DISTORTED NEWS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 7 April 1934, Page 6

DISTORTED NEWS

At the time of the Hawke’s Bay earthquake, and again when there were unemployment riots in Auckland in 1932, protests were made by the Press of the Dominion regarding the greatly distorted reports of these occurrences which had been forwarded to Australia and to the United States. Newspapers in both countries published grossly exaggerated statements of the dargage, and of the loss of life at Napier and Hastings. As a check upon the transmission of this undesirable and incorrect news, with its serious effect upon the Dominion’s credit and good name abroad, as well as the serious loss it causes to tourist traffic, the Government following the experiences in Auckland enforced regulations imposing a censorship upon messages for overseas newspapers bearing upon unemployment disturbances. It is a pity, in view of the reports that have appeared in the Australian Press recently relating to the earthquake of March 5, that the restriction was not made to extend to earthquakes of sufficient force to provide “news” for the Australian public. “New Zealand Night of Terror” was the main headline displayed in a leading Melbourne paper in recording the earthquake which was confined to the southern end of this island, and did not compare with the Hawke’s Bay affair. The latter, it may be said, did not bear relation in severity to disasters which have destroyed Japanese, Italian, and Mexican cities. Yet it was made to appear of similar dimensions. This city shared in the notoriety forced upon the Dominion by the Melbourne Herald when it said: “The open square at Palmerston North, one of the main centres of the disturbance, presented an indescribable scene of confusion. Here a vast crowd of people, shivering in pyjamas and nightgowns only, awaited what they thought to be the end.” Such utter nonsense, the product of an imaginative person in need of restraint might be overlooked in this country where the real facts are known, but Australians have always been educated to regard the Dominion as “in a continual quiver,” and such silly and extravagant reports may do serious harm by preventing the flow of tourist traffic this way. Fortunately, however, there are residents of the Commonwealth who have visited these shores on several occasions and know the truth which a sensational Press cloaks in its distorted news, and it is to them and others of sober mind that this country must look to protect its good name. At the same time it wquld be in the public interest if the Government enforced the regulations at its command to prevent the transmission of misleading and highly coloured reports of earth disturbances.