NEWSPAPER ARTICLES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 August 1924, Page 8

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES.

THE EIGHT OF REPLY. It is not surprising to learn that the decision of the French Court of Cassation on the question of the right of reply to articles appearing in newspapers and periodicals is not to he accepted as final. The French papers announce that the Revue des Deux Mondes is carrying the appeal, as it has power to do, to a still higher court. Meanwhile a case which has just been decided in an inferior court in Paris suggests liow uneasy must lie the heads of editors so long as the law of 1881-on the right of reply remains as the Court of Cassation has interpreted it. In this case the criticism complained of was on the work of a dead artist, states a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. An eminent art critic, M. Raymond Escholier, who is also the ; curator of the Mesee Victor Hugo, and the editor of the magazine where his article had appeared were the defendants in an action brought hv the artist’s heirs. They charged M. Escholier with unfair criticism, and the editor with refusing to insert a reply to it. The Court held that the criticism was fair, but fined the editor and ordered him to insert the reply. He may decline to do so pending the result of the Revue des Deux Mondes appeal; and though this case has already been five years before the courts the leisurely character of French litigation does not encourage the hope that the final verdict will lie given at an early date. In the meantime a somewhat different case, in which several well-known Flench art critics and artists are concerned, is being, heard before the Paris courts. Here the action is simply for libel, and the false statement complained of is that the painter Monticelli died in poverty. ~His relative deny the poverty, and claim 20,000 francs as damages. Details of libel cases are not allowed to be reported in France, but it is stated in the Figaro that the first line of defence is that it is noble and not disgraceful for a man of genius to die in poverty, and the second line of defence that the articles and lectures on which the plaintiffs have founded their action have, by arousing interest in Monticelli, greatly increased the sale of his pictures. The hearing is likely to drag on for some time.