CONTEMPT OF COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22609, 28 June 1935, Page 9

CONTEMPT OF COURT

SYDNEY PAPERS FINED REPORTS ON SMITH CASE SYDNEY, June 27. (Received June 28, at 0.30 a.m.) In connection with the newspaper contempt cases Mr Justice Halse Rogers imposed two fines of f 100 each on Sun Newspapers, Ltd., in relation to publication in the Telegraph and the Sun respectively of matter calculated to prejudice the trial of a person awaiting trial on a charge of murder. His Honor also fined the editors of those two journals £25 each. The judge directed that the fines, witli costs, be paid within two days. Mr Justice Halse Rogers said the assumption in the reports of both journals that James Smith had been murdered was calculated to influence, at least subconsciously, the minds of all who read it, and it assumed a matter which might become controversial at the trial of the person charged with murder. It assumed a matter which the Crown would first have to prove. That method of writing was certainly very dangerous. He added it was the duty of an editor oi some responsible person on any newspaper to instruct reporters respecting limitations on the publication of what are called crime stories.