THE RIGHT OF CRITICISM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 465, 24 February 1933, Page 4

THE RIGHT OF CRITICISM

Pertinent reference to tlae unfair insinuations made against the press of the Dominion by the leader of the Reform Party, Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, was made by the president of the New Zeaiand branch of the Empire Press Union (Mr. Henry Horton) during the course of his address at the annual meeting of the branch held in Rotorua yesterday. Mr. Horton said that he felt it his duty to refer to the unfair : titude taken up by Mr. Coates in insinuating that the frank critieisms of the exchange proposals published in a number of New Zeaiand newspapers were prompted by the fact that the newspapers themselves would be adversely affected by the increase in the rate. It may be fairly said that in a British country, the people haVe po sturdier bulwark against political interference than the press. Newspapers are controlled in the first place as private enterprises j but it is, in effect, the readers j of a newspaper who make it | what it is. A newspaper caters for a public demand and the demand, in this case, is for the expression of opinions and ideas. No newspaper over any length i of time, can impose its own opinions upon the opinions of its readers. These last must insensibly become the newspaper's opinion, for if any one news- ! paper persists in enforcing ideas ' which are unpalatable to its ' readers, they will abandon it for j one which is in sympathy with 1 them. In effect, therefore, the | press, so long as it is free and unrestricted, is the voice of the people and that is a voice to which even political demagogues must attend. Newspaper opinions upon the exchange question are a matter of individual editorial policy, but whether a newspaper is for or against the Government's action in raising the exchange, it will strongly resent the unfair implication made by Mr. Coates. Newspapers have a right to express their opposition to a political proposal, for in that opposition they are reflecting the opinions of their readers, and their readers in the mass, are the people who pay the piper for the politicians. The press of this Dominion has set a high standard and has a deservedly high reputation. In the past, it has espoused measures which were against its own interests because they were for the general weal and it has also suffered ingratitude from many of those who have built their reputations upon it. It does not become men in public life to indulge in insinuationis such ap those made by Mr. Coates and a public which has been well served by its press may be relied upon to judge between its press and its politicians. Mr. Coates met the first critieisms of the exchange proposal by the bald assertions that criticism "had gone far enough" and that in his opinion, it should cease. As the Minister failed to supply any adequate reasons to allay criticism, the opposition continued. It was then that Mr. Coates made the insinuation that the newspapers wefe fomenting the agitation for their own ends. Both of these replies are unfortunately excellent examples of the political riposte as it is understood to-day. In the one case, there is argument without reason and in the other an entirely unjustified innuendo.