The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1913. POLITICIANS AND THE PRESS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1657, 25 January 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1913. POLITICIANS AND THE PRESS.

South African newspapers are dealing drastically with their maligners. Everybody is more or less familiar with thp politician who dearly loves to cast obloquy upon and slander that portion of the press whose criticisms he fintfs inconvenient. In New Zealand are several conspicuous specimens of the type. Under cover of Parliamentary privilege, these people are sufficiently brave to vent their spleen upon the newspapers which, when occasion demands, do not hesitate to criticise their hollow pretensions. That is one type; but there is another. Tho second-class consists usually of foolish members who are totally ignorant of the systems which govern all newspapers of any standing, in New Zealand or elsewhere; Members of this class are prone, whenever what they deem a suitable ' opportunity offers, to deliver speeches glaringly inaccurate as to fact. When brought to book, and explanations aro demanded, they at onoo, and unblushingly, resort to tho old fiction that "the reporters are to blame." A few months spent by these men at the reporters' tables might conduco, if not exactly to truth, at least to tho framing of more rational excuses. A reporter has, professionally, neither politics nor opinions of his own. The political views of anewspaper appear in its editorial columns. We have had occasion" tto say : something of this nature on' previous l occasions, more especially when dealing with tho utterances of somo of tho remnants of New Zealand Liberalism, and referenco is now mado to the subject, in view of the manner in which the South African press treats political malignants.

As most. readers are probably aware, many of tho' Dutch-speaking politicians of South Africa are remarkablo. for the elasticity of their opinions. They/ aro particularly "slim,"/to employ one of their own terms. Take, by way of example, one sentence from a speech of General Botha; delivered at tho recent Nationalist Congress in Pretoria. Wo quote tho sentenoo precisely as spoken by tho Prime. Minister, not the "taal," of course, but the translation given by the Clape Times. Said General Botha: "Wo must make our programme of principles so slippery that no one can touch it. ana that anyono can make out oi it what he likes." When the Dutch party's programme of principles 'is so elusive, what must somo of tho party speeches be like ? Mr. Hertzog got into hot water over what is known as the Nylstrom spcech. On that occasion he denounced Sir Thohas Smartt, leader of the Union Opposition, and Colonel Byron, an Opposition Senator,- as mire "fortune-seekers," declared that the Dutch mußt be "boss" in South Africa, and made several other equally impudent assertions. Then, afterwards, he tried to explain away his words, and succeeded in making things worse than they were before. He, of course, alpo attempted to mako out that he had been misreported; but tho evidence against_ him on this score was quite conclusive. Then, strange to say, Mr. Burton, Minister for Railways—who, not long ago, openly rebuked Mr.Hertzoq in the Houso of Assembly—came to the rescue of his colleague. Speaking at Grahams-I town, Mr. Burton said that Mr. Hertzoq was apparently the only asset of the Unionist party. "He | was followed by armies of reporters with magnifying glasses, and every chance expression, every little phrase used in the heat of debate, every little possible slip, was magnified. His speeches were misinterpreted. distorted, and exaggerated." The Cape, Natal, and Transvaal Societies of Journalists took prompt action. Mr. Burton waß invited to supply the concrete examples upon which he based his .charges, failing that, to make a public withdrawal. The Gape Times, in a spirited' leading article on the subject, begins : To admit that you have made a mistake, is, on a philosophic view, merely to demonstrate that you are wiser to-day than you were yesterday." What, however, might have been expected, happenod. The Minister returned a lengthy but quibbling reply, adhering to tho magnifying glasses idea, and now indulging in a further form of offence. The misinterpretation, the distortion, and the exaggeration, ho explained, was tho work of others than tho The reporters of tho Transvaal, with tho full approval of their editors, immediately decided that, until Mr. Burton withdrew his gross allegations and apologised for the same, that he and his speeches would be subjected, to a rigorous boycott. _ Tho latest received South African files show that the boycott has already been tested,

and is bring maintained. Mr. Burton" visited Johannesburg and Pretoria in Doccmjier, ana addressed publio meetings in both towns. Nonq.

of the Transvaal newspapers mentioned tho fact. A telegram from Johannesburg, howover, appeared, on tho following day, in the Gape Times. It read as follows: "The Minister for Railways spoke yesterday, hero and in Pretoria. _ None of the papers contain, or will contain, any reports of these speeches. The editors of all tho Johannesburg and Pretoria, papers are thus Blipporting' the Journalists' _ Society, whose attitude they entirely approve. The position in future will be that, not only will the Railway Minister not bo reported by members of the Transvaal' Society, but no report of a speech of his telegraphed by Renter, or by a correspondent, or received otherwise, will be permitted to appear in the newspapers. This attitude will bo adopted until the Minister apologises for the aspersion he cast on reporters in his Grahamstown speech." The Cape and Transvaal papers, wo may add, have quite pleasant and refreshing leaders on the politicians' habit of blaming reporters for all their "rhetorical indiscretions"— pleasant and refreshing, inasmuch as they are so peculiarly applicable to some New Zealand _ politicians, who need not bo specified. South African modes of retaliation, however, must be kept in mind.