PROHIBITED PRESSMEN. Reporters as Scapegoats.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 174, 31 October 1903, Page 6

PROHIBITED PRESSMEN. Reporters as Scapegoats.

PRESSMEN petitioned Parliament recently. The petition was the fruit of the recent newspaper breach of privilege case The breach of privilege case did not hurt any newspapers In fact, it rather "helped the aid chariot along " Parliamentary reporters were promised the loss of their daily bread if at any future time they refused to disclose the source of information out of which a breach of privilege action had been instituted. ♦ * » It would be equally reasonable to prohibit a barrister from practising in com t because he showed some partiality for his employer — otherwise, his client The average criminal who has "done time" is usually given a chance of earning his living The law doesn't say that because a drapei's assistant stole some of his employer's cash, he shall not be allowed to work as a draper any more If the law is "a hass,' it isn t quite as asinine as that. * * « This, however, m effect, is what is promised the pressman who, to follow the simile, turns "King's evidence," and gives a politician away ' No reporter is likely to cavil, even though his paper is fined for breach of privilege A standing order may be absurd, but it is a law, and, therefore, to be obeyed, but the law that visits the sin of a proprietor, who iei c finally responsible for the breach, on the head of an employee and takes his livelihood away from him, is not a fit one for a, democratic colony.