THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2992, 16 September 1908, Page 4

THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

At the annuial meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists, the following recommendation was received from the Wellington branch:— "That this meeting affirms the undesirableness of leaving unnoticed the attacka that ara made on various

occasions upon the integrity of journalists in their professional capacity." The mover of the remit referred to a growing tendency among politicians to make unjust charges against the press in Australia and New Zealand. He mentioned the anxiety of politicians of the Commonwealth, including Mr Deakin and Sir Thomas Bent, to muzzle the press as much as possible in the department of politics, and the "gag" clause of the Second Ballot Bill showed that some New Zealand politicians were aping the Australian attempt. Several dtlegates Bpoke of certain politicians' habit of trying to shield themselves from the effect.-.! of their own mistakes by crying out that they haci been "misrepresented." Those individuals were also unscrupulous in other respects and disrespects. The remit was adopted, with the addition of a clause stating that the institute should not ignore "attacks upon the proper liberty of the press in the matter of political criticism."