PRESS PRIVILEGES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 415, 23 April 1937, Page 3

PRESS PRIVILEGES.

WHO GETS THE BENEFIT? Threat of Dictatorship. Gisborne April 23. The suggestion made by Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister o£ Industries and Commerce, that Press telegraphic brivllegbs may ba withdrawn sounds too much of dictatorship, according to Mr H. G. Dickie, M.P., Patea, when addressing a meeting in 4he City Hall here. Mr Dickie submitted to a number of interjections whtn he was speaking of the Government's, attack on '.he Press, this attack, he said, being followed by an outburst by Rev. C. G Scrimgeour.

A voice: It was quite true what, he said. Mr Dickie said that Mr Scrimgeour’s suggestion that the Press of Britain was responsible for the constitutional crisis could not be correct because the English papers did not mention the incident until a few days before the abdication, and neither did the New Zealand papers. High Standard of Pressi, “We are very proud of the Press of this country,” Mr Dickie continued, ‘•but Mr Sullivan, who is an old journalist, said recently til it if the Press did no<t come into line there were certain privileges and concessions which he hinted might be .‘Withdrawn.” A voice: Why shouldn't they? Who gets the benefit? Mr Dickie: The people who read the papers g:it the benefit. I happen to be a part-owner of a paper (cries of “Oh”), and I get less publicity than anyone, but I lam not complaining. If you are going to have a Press that is subservient to the Government, it is going to lose its prestige. Every New Zealander is proud of our papers l , from (the big dailies to the smalt weeklies. An interjector: In spite of the Press, the Labour Party got. in. Mr Dickie: And what are you squealing ‘about. I think the Press gave Labour a very fair run. A voice: Scrimgeour climbed down. Referring to the “jamming” of MT Scrimgeour’s station, Mr. Dickie said that Mr Scrimgeour had been warned about Indulging in political propa. gandla and that he Would be stopped if that were continued, but the method used might not have been the best. All that was necessary to have been done was the cancellation of the license, but a technical man was Put in charge of the matter, and a technical man did things his own way