Free speech, advertising pays

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 486, 18 May 1993, Page 4

Free speech, advertising pays

• After some discussion with 'Jesus in the Waimarino Club over a beer. A beverage, that I as usual had to pay for, we came to a mutual agreement. That is, we are both unhappy about the way you edit letters to the editor.

While we can appreciate that for reasons of grammar, slander, libel or the editing of obscenities it may be necessary to edit from time to time. The leaving out of and entire paragraph as happened to my letter of two weeks ago or the dropping of certain relevant phrases as happened to Glenn's opps I mean 'Jesus's' letter of last week is too severe. If this continues I am sure that myself, Jesus and any other correspondents that have had their letters altered by you will not bother writing again, thus defeating the free speech that your paper should encourage. Lou Most EDITOR REPLIES: Letters are accepted for publication under certain conditions. They should be signed with a contact telephone number and address (although a penname can be included for publication); they should be legible and written double spaced and on one side of the page only. While our policy is to keep editing to a minimum, we reserve the right to abridge, alter or reject letters. In the case of your letter, while I agree with your view that we should encourage freedom of speech, we cannot afford to allow free advertising. Parts of your letter were edited out because they

consituted advertising. In the case of your friend's letter, the passage was removed because it was distasteful and disturbing, and was not nec-

essary in making his point. If in future you are unsure about whether a letter is acceptable, please feel free to call and discuss it first.