THE DUTY OF A NEWSPAPER

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2297, 2 July 1921, Page 1

THE DUTY OF A NEWSPAPER

At a dinner given in honour of the centenary of the Manchester Guardian, Mr C'. P. Scott, who has been editor of the Guardian for 50 years, stated what in his view were the duties and the functions of,a newspaper. He said: “The first function, it seems to me, of a newspaper is that, which its name implies, to give the news and give the whole news. (Hear, hear.) It must not select. (Hear, hear.) It must not pervert; it must not colour. Facts are sacred,’and to use its command of statement and of publication as a means of propaganda—that is the accursed thing. Its second duty is to reflect ilfe in all its phases and in all its multitudinous aspects—art, literature, science, commerce, society, pastimes, religion, everything—and to do this as fully and as fairly as it knows how. And not merely to represent, but to criticise; that is to say, to represent these great departments of thought and activity as fairly and as completely as it knows how. Its third duty, I should say, would be the hardest, perhaps, of all. That is to influence and, in so far ns it is able, to direct opinion. That is an enormous task which ho man and no newspaper can ‘ fully perform. It demands the best

intelligence that it is able to command, with conscience and integri* ty, not merely moral integrity, but mental integrity, behind all. It is not given to man fully to discharge these tasks, let alone to us poor devils of journalists who are quilldriving or typewriting—and who work against time by night. ‘ But there it is, and we have got to make the best of it, and to do our duty as well as we can.”