FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19670, 12 December 1933, Page 4

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.

To the Editor of '* The Tlmaru Herald " Sir, —During the past few months, and especially during the past few weeks, these correspondence columns have contained letters which deprecate criticism. The letters were contributed by members of the New Zealand Legion, and the letters generally insinuated that the freedom of the Press should be restricted. By this manifestation of the thoughts of Legion members it is evident that the Legion Is unconsciously, if not consciously linked with the spirit of nationalism. It endorses ideals which are being enforced by its kindred organisations in other countries. Now in the first place, in spite of’the petty wails of the Legion, the freedom of the Press is a special heritage of the British race. The freedom of our New Zealand Press is a thing of which we should be justly proud. It is a thing which allows the people to collect different opinions on different questions; and more important still, it exemplifies the constitutional freedom enjoyed by the New Zealand people. “The greatest service of a free Press," states the London "Morning Post,” “is to keep the public mind abreast of events, and thereby to mobilise public opinion. A people blindfolded by authority may be happy and prosperous, but they cannot be free. In a modern state, all civil liberty is bound up with the freedom of the Press.” That concluding statement contains an important meaning for the people in this country. All our civil liberty is bound up with the freedom of the Press. “The desire on the part of politicians, especially of those exercising despotic power, to control the Press is natural,” states “The Scotsman.” “It is perfectly certain that the German revolution could not have been accomplished with as little resistance, if the Press had not been muzzled. The German people have not been allowed to know more than their present rulers consider advisable. The same applies to Russia and Italy. The Press in these countries has been used not only to conceal the truth, but to build up a new national psychology favourable to the theories of the despots in power.” Freedom is the thing which New Zealand people should cherish. The Legion has not only condemned freedom of criticism, but more than that, it-cherishes the notion that it -will be the party which will obliterate all other parties. It maintains that other parties should not exist, and that the Legion party alone should exist. If the Legion can maintain that it has, as a political party, a right to exist, why should it deny existence to other parties? Assuredly, the Legion has laid its foundations on very loose sand. Assuredly, the Legion is quite unable to undermine our political constitution—our political constitution has its foundations laid on centuries of strenuous evolution. —I am, etc., FREEDOM. Timaru, December 11.