N. Z. PRESS ASSN.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 466, 25 February 1933, Page 3

N. Z. PRESS ASSN.

EFFECTIVB NEWS SERVICE AND RECORI) NUMBER OF WORDS. ASSN, ANNUAL MEETING. "Your assoelation has developed an .efficient organisation for the collection and distribution of international and domestic news that affords its members a service equal to any in the Empire," said Sir Cecil Leys, chairman of the Board of Direetors of the United Press Association, in his address to the annual meeting yesterday. It was gratifying to he able to record that 1932, while it was a year of general business depression, saw no falling off in the high stand'ards which they had come to expect from the 'association. The amount of cahle received during the year was 1,070,000 words, .a record, there being increase inhoththe internationa and Australian services. Suhjeets of outstanding importance and interest were the war debt payments and discussions; the Irish dispute over the land annuities; Brit'ain's introduction of a tariff; sessions of t'he League of Nations and Lausanne Conference; the Ottawa Conference; the Olympiad; the Lindbergh baby sensation; the American Presidential campaign and election; theSino-Japanese hostilities; the developments in India in which" Gandhi and the Congress leaders fig-s ured; the Atlantic and. ot'her fiights. "In the Australia service, events of outstanding importance dealt with included the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the dismissal of the Lang Government by the State Govenor, the varying course of Commonwealth and State politics, and the toufs of th.e \ New Zealand All Blacks and the English cricket team. 'Many highly interesting political situations arose during the year, and the increase occurred in spite of determined efforts to stem it. Efficient Service. The New Zealand service has been efficiently conducted, and newspapers had relied on the association more than in the past to su^ply them with adequate reports of local happenings. They had to thank the Telegraph Department for some mitigation of the restrictions placed on the use of wires at Press rates. A reduction had been made in Sunday evening hours, but on representations from the association the department altered the opening time, making it from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m., a concession that was appreciated by the morning press. Referring to the relations between broadeasting and the newspaper press, Sir Cecil said that the world position in the matter of the rights in news was of vital importance to the association, and equally to individual newspapers. A judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States had precluded the use by any broad- [ casting station of the contents of any newspaper without express permisssion in writing. The Canadian conrts, however, had decided that any eommercial radio station in Canada could j make use of the news once it was on the street and could broadeast it at will. The lcgality of the decision was submitted to eminent counsel in Lon^ don, and the conclusion reaclied was that while in English law there was no copyright in news as such, there was copyright in the particular forrns of language or modes of expression by which information or news was conveyed. Counsel concluded that reading the news to the publie through a broadeasting microphone constituted an infringement of copyright in that it was a performance in public without the consent of the owner. Property in News. The British Broadeasting Corporation recognised property in news and P'urchased Reuter's Service at a cost of £2000 per annum, as well as subsuhscribing to other press agencies, In Australia the matter of news broadeasting was definitely regulated in the rules governing wireless telegraphy. . In New Zealand all messages received by the association from outside the Dominion were adequately protected from pirating for eighteen hours from the time of first . publication. It was practically certain that property existed in news, and that the internal telegrams of the association could not be legally broadeast or disseminated by any publicity agency. The question of policy was of equal importance to that of rights. Broadeasting was a public utility that would steadily expand. The B.B.C. had shown a sp'irit of co-operation with British newspapers that was admirable. . A striking evidence of this was to he found in a decision arrived at in December that a member of the Board of Governors should retire and •a representative of the newspaper interests take his place. In Canada, where the position had been chaotic, a former Toronto newspaper editor had been appointed as the head of the new controlling hody. The development of broadeasting in New Zealand would inevitably advance, and the interests of the newspapers and the broadeasting service would be be'st safeguarded by the constitution of the board providing for the inclusion of a newspaper man selected by the Press Association. A policy could be developed that would permit a reasonable broadeast of news without injury to the daily newspaper.