THREATS AGAINST THE PRESS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1891, 28 October 1913, Page 6

THREATS AGAINST THE PRESS.

. , a Threats have been made against The- Dominion in connection with its c( comments 011 the present waterside ii workers' strike. We have been told « that the office will be raided nnri personal violence has been threatened th<? Editor, as well .ira damage, t<> pronartv. It is difficult to beliavo that pc

such attempts at intimidation Could be seriously contemplated, by an organisation which, above all others, strains to the uttermost the license ' of free speech. It is inconceivable also that any body of men could be ! so foolish as to think that an institu- ( tion sueh ns the newspaper Press is to be gagged and its free and legitimate criticism on current events and matters of public concern stilled because of the antagonism of a section of people who resent its exercise of that liberty which they claim for themselves, and which the Press did 1 so much towards assisting them to sccure. Equally incredible is it that ! those who make these threats can believe that they would do themselves or their_ cause anything but harm by attempting; to interfere by means of , physical violence or the destruction j of property with the performance by , the Press of those functions which it is not merely its recognised privilege, but its plain duty, to fulfil. Neither The Dominion nor, we beany other paper in this country, is to be muzzled in this way. It will be a bad day for the country—a bad day for the Laborganisations and everyone else in it—when its newspapers lack the courage to write freely on questions affecting the welfare of the public for fear of such consequences as those' ' which wo are told threaten ns in the ' present case. j 1