FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20096, 16 November 1939, Page 2

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

NOT TO BE ABUSED . GOVERNMENT'S STAND (Special to the Herftld.) WELLINGTON, this day. Stating that certain promises had been made to the Old Country, and they were going to be carried out until the Government could see something better to do, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, ip the Labour newspaper, is reported as saying:

“What was an offence during the last war is an oflence during the present war. I want to make it clear that even members of Parliament are not going to be allowed to step on it as they think fit. “The leading columns of the newspapers are being openly used to discredit everything the Government is doing.” The Government, he said, believed in freedom of the press, but was determined that that freedom shotild not be abused. He had been told that circulars had been sent out advising people not to pay their rent. If that was correct the persons who had done that would be ‘brought up with a round turn.

The Opposition, continued Mr. Savage, had pledged itself to co-oper-ate with the Government, but its members were going round the country using every opportunity they could get for decrying the Government. They had taken advantage of the present situation to make all sorts of statements without troubling to check their truth.

Most leading articles written against the Government were so weak that a horse and cart could be driven through them. Their opponents were complaining that the Government was making unprecedented use of the radio, but what other method could it use?