MR NASH ACCEPTS ASSURANCE

Southland Times, Issue 23512, 19 May 1938, Page 4

MR NASH ACCEPTS ASSURANCE

Writing Of Letters To Newspaper REPLY TO PROTEST BY JOURNALISTS (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 18. In a statement this evening the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) referred to a letter published today in which the literary staff of The Dominion took exception to the Minister’s remark at Lower Hutt on Monday that “the staff of The Dominion are instructed to write letters to the editor condemning the Government.” “I accept the assurance of the writers of the letter published in this morning’s paper,” Mr Nash said, “that no member of the staff has ever been instructed by the editor or the management to write letters to the editor on any subject whatever, much less on politics.”

The Minister added that it would be helpful to good journalism if a like assurance could be given that no letter published in The Dominion originated in The Dominion office and that all anonymous letters published in The Dominion were from bona fide readers writing to the editor entirely independent of The Dominion or the National Party. Commenting editorially, The Dominion says: “It is to the credit of Mr Nash that he now admits the paucity of the charge he made agaihst this paper and its staff. It would have been still more to his credit had .he allowed the matter to rest there. Both the National Party and the Labour Party, and also supporters of those parties have at different times written letters to this paper and their letters have been published. No correspondence is inspired, as is suggested by the Minister, in this office. Correspondents who prefer to write anonymously and who deal with questions of public interest are, within reason, as much entitled to air their opinions in the public Press as they are to exercise their votes under the secrecy of the ballot box. It is necessary at times as a safeguard against victimization —more necessary today, perhaps, than ever.” - “BELABOURING THE PRESS” EDITORIAL COMMENT ON MR NASH’S STATEMENT Under the heading, . “Belabouring The Press,” The New Zealand Herald, Auckland, printed yesterday the following editorial comment on Mr Nash s attack: . To divert attention from their own shortcomings, politicians often seek to present the public with another scapegoat. Hence the frequent attacks on the Press, repeated by Mr Nash in his speech at Lower Hutt. He sees discrimination and prejudice in the fact that newspapers do not report every utterance of Ministers in full. Actually, of . course, Ministers are receiving very generous treatment at the hands of the Press. They occupy infinitely more space daily than Opposition speakers. But like all politicians, Ministers are much given to repetition.. Mr Nash covered a lot of old ground at Lower Hutt. Even in Parliament this sort of thing is sometimes barred as “tedious repetition.” Editors have less use for it and newspaper readers none at all. They demand news and every Minister knows that reporters will accept, and newspapers print, every scrap of news he can give. But ministerial statements are sometimes, perhaps often, very long and prosy. Editors exercise a wise discretion in condensing such turgid documents, seeking to give busy readers the cream. As Mr Nash himself acknowledged in his speech, newspapers are not propaganda sheets. Their constant endeavour is to present the facts in true and reliable fashion. They sell news and seek to purvey a sound article; if for no other reason, then, because their business depends on their doing so, day in and day out. What Mr Nash may mean by the concession of £219,476 newspapers received last year at the expense of the public revenue is not clear. If he refers to the rate on Press telegrams, 1/6 for 100 words, then the . public should known that it is several times dearer than the British rate, once the same message is addressed to several papers. In New Zealand if it be sent out to a dozen papers, the collective cost is 18/— for 100, or almost twice the rate for ordinary telegrams; in Britain the same service would cost only 4/-. Bulk traffic running to many thousands of words nightly and the teleprinter should make this class of business very profitable to the Telegraph Department. If it is not profitable, if the Government last year suffered a loss of £219,476, can Mr Nash say why the department takes all sorts of precautions to keep the business by barring newspapers from taking news off the air? TELEGRAPH CHARGES TO NEWSPAPERS “GOVERNMENT IN MOOD TO REVIEW” RATES (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, May 18. ' The newspapers and the Press Association received another broadside of Government thunder last night. This time the barrage was fired by the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb), when he addressed a meeting at St. Andrew’s, telegraphs the reporter of The Christchurch Star-Sun. Mr Webb said that he and all the other Ministers fully supported the statements made by the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) when he referred to the attitude of the newspapers during his broadcast address on Monday night. A section of the metropolitan newspapers was definitely hostile to the Government, said Mr Webb, and though they made frequent references to the amount of space devoted to reporting the speeches and activities of Government members the newspapers could not disguise the fact that they were prepared to go to any lengths to conceal the true facts from the public. “All along the Government has asked for nothing more than fair play—it does not want any more from its opponents than it is prepared to concede to them,” declared Mr Webb. “It is satisfied that it has not received fair play and that it cannot expect fair play in future. If the newspapers are seeking open warfare they can have it. If they persist in their present attitude of telling only half the story then the Government will take other means of making its policy known. Concessions to the newspapers in reduced telegraph rates cost the country over £200,000 last year and unless a fair sense of proportion is interpreted in the production of newspapers from day to day those concessions may be revised.” Nir Webb added that it was unfair tactics and definite evidence of hostility on the part of the newspapers to take advantage of the reduced telegraph

charges to spread propaganda for a political party whose policy suited them and refuse the same publicity to their opponents. Emphasizing his threat that the Government was in a mood to review the telegraph concessions, Mr Webb said that Mr Nash in Ips speech at the Hutt had expressed correctly the feeling of Cabinet. He was also of opinion that the Government would have support. The consensus of opinion was that the newspapers in the metropolitan centres, by adhering to a policy of shielding the motives of a group of capitalists had divorced themselves from public sympathy and current editorial comment was not a reflection of the political opinion of the mass of the people. The Dominion needed roads, bridges and railways, as well as houses for its workers, and it had a Government which was striving to give it those facilities, which were the foundation of progress. It was quite reasonable that it could expect a measure of support from the Press, but instead of support it had encountered opposition. Mr Webb made a charge that discrimination had been shown against the Government in the news columns of several newspapers. Mr Webb added that recently when introducing a new candidate to the electors in Pahiatua and Dannevirke he had been received enthusiastically by _ overcrowded meetings, but no notice was taken of this by the Press Association. Similarly not a line had appeared outside Rotorua about a meeting conducted in that town by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) last Wednesday. Mr Semples audience overcrowded the hall and loudspeakers were necessary to convey Mr Semple’s words to the overflow outside. On the other hand when any Minister or a responsible member of the Government made an accidental slip his words were snapped up and telegraphed throughout the country. “The Government only wants the Press to play the game and give the people all the news,” Mr Webb con* duaed.