LAW OF LIBEL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1938, Page 22

LAW OF LIBEL

USE OF THE RADIO

MR. LEE'S REMARKS

CRITICISED

The hope that the next Parliament would give early attention to the law of libel, and make it impossible for any speaker to use the radio for the purpose of making abusive comments about living persons which would be actionable if put into writing, was expressed by Mr. O. C. Mazengarb, National candidate for Wellington Suburbs, when speaking in the Ngaio Town Hall last night. "It is high time that a. stop was put to the use of the microphone for the purpose of broadcasting allegations that people are 'liars' " "What about Smith?" asked someone. "If Mr. Smith called people liars I would say the same thing about him/ said the candidate.Mr. Mazengarb i said that Mr. Scrimgeour was the first to discover a loophole in the law of slander which allowed men to do this sort of thing with: impunity. He called them liars. Voice; They were liars. Mr, Mazengarb: Why did he not Write letters to those alleged liars and enable them to claim for damages if the statement were untrue. He went on to say that the night before, Mr. J. A. Lee fully exploited that weakness in the law in a clumsy attempt to get out of the difficulties into which his latest literary efforts had landed him. "I am told by listeners that he kept repeating the word 'lies,' lies,' 'lies,' and similar expletives," he said. "He complained that a daily newspaper had misrepresented him by connecting two quotations which appeared in different pages of his book. But how can you describe a speaker who purports to read a paragraph from his own book and leaves out the one sentence which, any ordinary listener could immediately see, makes the whole paragraph convey the very opposite impression from that which he is now trying to convey. The sentence gives the clue to Mr. Lee's meaning and which, I am informed, was omitted was this: 'For years New Zealand has been at too great pains to suggest respectable origins, whereas even the missionaries were rare land jobbers.' "Why did he write the paragraph at all, unless it was to cast a blemish on the character of the people of this country? Why make a nasty allegation concerning deceased missionaries unless it was to support his general allegation concerning our antecedents? Any schoolboy knows that 'adventurers and vagabonds' are not necessarily criminals. But no person could possibly mistake Mr. Lee's opinion of our pioneers and their descendants when he quoted from another source such expressions as 'runaway convicts,' 'runaway sailors,' and the 'scum of the earth,' and then added his own opinion that 'further hoards of adventurers, and vagabonds came here and 'left their mark on New Zealand character.'" Voice: Misrepresentation. Mr. Mazengarb: I am telling you that Mr. Lee has misrepresented the character of the people of New Zealand. (Applause.) What I say is not misrepresentation. The proper thing for Mr. Lee to do is to say that he has made a mistake, and that he will withdraw the slur and apologise to the people of New Zealand. Mr. Mazengarb said that not only had Mr. Lee attacked the dead in his book, but he had attacked the living in his broadcasts. "The dead cannot take action against Mr. Lee," he continued. "Neither can any person whom he calls a liar through the microphone. But I hope for his own sake, as well as for the honour of New Zealand, that Mr. Lee will not permit further circulation of his book in its present offensive form. "Let us be proud of our country, and take as our motto 'forever New Zealand.* It is my firm belief that those who founded our country built even better than they knew. They established for us here a freedom of economic life and a standard of living second to none in the world. Mr. Lee's attack on the name of New Zealand for political purposes had failed miserably, because the people would have none of it