NEWSPAPER LISEL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10504, 12 July 1910, Page 1

NEWSPAPER LISEL.

AMENDING A SEVKiiE LAW. By Telegraph. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington. July 11. The general public, as well as journalists will be interested in a new Libel Bill affecting newspapers to be brought forward this session by the Government. It is likely to follow on modified lines the newspaper libel law of England with features borrowed irom the Queensland and Victorian statutes. Ji may be news to the man in the street that New Zealand newspapers are not afforded the privileges oi lair reporting enjoyed in conservative Kngland. where each copv of the Daily News sheet once paid stamp duty. However, the new measure is said to be designed with the object of making tilings for the bouahde newspaper which seeks to serve the public interest. It will prohibit "chain" actions, such as those enabling a plaintill' to recover individual damages against every newspaper publishing a libellous telegram circulated by a news agoncv. Such is the state of New Zealand 'libel law that it will be found necessary to enact that lair reports of bona-iide public meetings are privileged. Already the press has gained a hardearued point by the decision that an action brought at the suggestion of a solicitor wliose interest lies entirely in a share of the prospective damages is illegal.