THE DIGNITY OF PARLIAMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 150, 28 June 1943, Page 4

THE DIGNITY OF PARLIAMENT

A CORRESPONDENT refers to the habit of members of Parliament using scathing terms concerning people who are not members of the House and who have no means of reply to the intemperate language which is sometimes indulged in during debates. While the persons so assailed may feel aggrieved it is not they who are the chief sufferers from such condjict; the chief casualty is the dignity of Parliament. When a member of Parliament attacks an individual who is not present the member is protected by the privilege of the House, but the question will have to be settled soon as to whether the broadcasting services are liable for publishing over the air what might amount to a libel if the same remarks were published in permanent form. Spoken but unwritten defamatory statements are not easily made the subject of an action at law, but the reason for the differentiation between libel—written defamatory statements —and slander—spoken defamatory statements—has in the past rested mainly on the degree of damage which is likely to be inflicted upon the aggrieved person. Words spoken in private conversation arc expected not to gain the wide currency that the written and published word must be expected to receive; consequently, the damage of the permanent record is deemed to be the greater. But now that the radio multiplies the listeners the distinction between libel and slander must be reviewed. In this process it is also nAessary to review the right to Parliamentary protection being extended to an M.P. who makes statements in the course of a debate in Parliament which are harmful to an individual and which statements are broadcast over the radio systems. In the meantime the responsibility for the radio services must he fixed in order to protect the individual. This course would lead to a limitation to the abuse of Parliamentary privilege and would result in a contraction of the harm which low-grade contributions to Parliamentary debates do to the dignity of Parliament itself.